


The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

by morgay



Category: Internet Personalities, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl (YouTube Series)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Blood, Bonding, Canon, Crushes, Demons, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship, Ghosts, Haunting, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light-Hearted, Loss, Love, Mental Health Issues, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Paranormal, Poltergeists, Possessions, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Relationship(s), Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Suicidal Thoughts, Teenagers, Violence, YouTube, Youtube Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2019-10-06 13:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 53
Words: 92,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17346203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgay/pseuds/morgay
Summary: Sunshine can handle ghosts. She can handle the occasional door closing and a whisper in her ear every now and then.What she cannot handle is blood smeared over the bathroom walls and the horrific screams of children all through the night, banging and kicking on the doors.Ghosts, demons, poltergeists, markons — all things Sunshine has to learn, overcome, and adapt with through her new life. But she can’t do this alone. Sunshine’s mother, a creepy witch lady, her not-uncle, and a weird anti-social teenage boy come together, lock hands, and embrace the future.This is the Haunting of Sunshine Girl.





	1. ✧ PART ONE ✧

**Author's Note:**

> It starts out like this: 9 year old me browsing YouTube and stumbling across a two year old series called “The Haunting of Sunshine Girl.” And after watching the first season, I was entrapped. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the screen.
> 
> God, I loved it.
> 
> So, here I am, 6 years later and finally reminiscing on old memories. And what have I decided to do? Well, of course write the series!
> 
> Now, don’t get this confused. This won’t be exactly like the series, but 90% will be close if not identical. I just want to flesh out these characters while I watch it again myself, starting fresh and anew. There will be extra chapters and extra snippets that I always wished to see during the series.
> 
> That being said, here it is. My number one project at the moment that I’m definitely going to be putting all my effort in to. If you’re a fan, enjoy this, and if you’re not, follow along! It’s not hard to grasp the idea and I promise, it’s an amazing story. I just hope I can reflect the same feelings I had and still have for it.
> 
> Now, I’m going to stop talking and let you get on with the story.
> 
> Thank you all. Enjoy!

PART ONE  
_Season One_

**A new house, new spirits, and a new frame of mind.**

****

****

**Wait, demons?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you’re here for nolan: part 4 :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine introduces herself.

She sits facing the camera, attempting to smooth down her unkept hair. Her eyes are a little droopy but she accepts her looks for the way they are. Staticky, pale and curled hair flips over her head and reaches nearly to her elbows; she’s wearing a blue flannel and a pink tank top underneath.

Fairly casual, she muses.

“Hey everybody,” she says. Her first words, her first smile, her first impression on the world. A laugh presses against her throat and she raises her hands. “So, I know this is a little strange, but I’m going to make videos, a bunch of ‘em, and hopefully I’ll capture _what_ is going _on_ in this _house_.”

Her eyes brighten, her head tilts forward, and her lips purse. “I am _not_ even kidding you, there is some creepy, sketch stuff going down. Like, really!”

She breathes, smiles, and looks up for a moment. “I should probably tell you a little about myself.. before you like, you know, get invested in this video, you should probably know who I am.”

She leans forward and blinks. “My name is Sunshine. I’m very interested in the paranormal side of things. I don’t know what I believe, necessarily, is in this house but there is something in. this house. And I will capture it.”

Sunshine grunts. “Mainly for my mother, if that is all that is watching this, it will be my mother. You get to see it too though, if you, y’know, sit down and watch this full video and my...paranormal adventure into the life of what is here.”

She pauses. “But...yeah. You’ll find out, there’s stuff here.”

She reaches forward and switches off the camera.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Her mother has never particularly loved huge houses, and a two-story home was never something Kat nor Sunshine had imagined. But this was one of the few places left to move in and money was tight. It was cheap. It would have to do until Kat could get herself working again.

Sunshine herself, well, she actually likes it. Surprisingly. Her room is small but cozy. It has a warm, inviting feel to it; pink frames the walls and she has a white sheet covering her twin bed (hardly a twin bed at all). A poster of a statue hangs over her head, and she has antiques stacked along the shelves. Two statues, old beer bottles, a 1980’s radio, a wood-woven chest, and most importantly, her typewriter.

Maybe it’s the items that have always brought spirits, but Sunshine isn’t so sure. The objects — they were from her relatives, either long dead or a long way away. They’d never complained about odd occurances in their homes. Perhaps they just hadn’t recognized the signs, or maybe had tricked themselves into believing they weren’t being haunted.

Or, the simple answer: they _weren’t_ haunted.

Now, the rest of her house is fairly spacious. An office sits across from Sunshine’s room and an outstretched balcony looks over the front yard. Stairs curl down to the kitchen, a compact space, but an open window shares the gloomy sight of gray clouds. That’s where her mother often is.

Oh, her mother. Kat. A proud, sturdy and independent woman with a distaste toward all the bullshit and lies. She’s honest, always honest, and Sunshine wonders if that’s why she’s always at home, or if it’s why she has no friends. Women — even men, sometimes — they just don’t like to be told someone’s thoughts right to their face. Of course, Sunshine doesn’t mind. She and her mother get along amazingly. 

She can see some similarities between the two of them. Though Sunshine doesn’t share her mother’s auburn hair, her sharp nose or her almond gaze, they do have a similar frame and body type. Her mother is small, too; like mother like daughter, they say.

Perhaps Kat’s brutal honesty has rubbed off on Sunshine, too.

And then their living room. Large, wide, tall. Many black chairs dot the outer edges with a large television seated in the corner. A couch faces away from the kitchen, and more windows let light flood through the room. Sunshine likes this room. 

Hell, she likes the whole house. What could go wrong?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine gets the camera out, turns it on herself, and slides down the stairs.

“This is my mother!” The screen is turned toward Kat, who looks more or less disinterested. She holds a lax stare and her brows are raised just a little.

Or maybe she’s annoyed.

“Whatcha doin,” Kat says, voice flat.

Sunshine giggles softly. “Capturing the paranormal activity, woman! Since you didn’t _believe_ me —”

“Do _I_ look like a ghost?” she questions, moving forward toward the counter. “Turn it off.”

“She’s a ghost,” Sunshine whispers. Her mother is probably rolling her eyes. “A lil’ freaky sometimes. I’m not turning it off though.” She smiles.

“What, you think there’s a ghost in the kitchen?” Kat asks as Sunshine gives a tour of the room.

“Yes, there is,” Sunshine says, exasperated. “Our dining room table, it looks a little lonely, doesn’t it? Mm. Whatever. A little dark and creepy back there.”

As she walks into the living room her mother calls to her. “Have you done your homework?”

Sing song: “Homework’s for loooserrrs~”

⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So. What kind of views are outside of Sunshine’s house?

A meth lab trailer by an equally meth-labby shack, a house with boarded windows, and no lights on the street.

What a sight.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She just wanted to make a video on her favorite comfort foods.

Instead, a door had to slam. She investigated.

No, nope, she didn’t.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
There’s a voice — she can hear it, but she can never quite catch it on her camera.

She’s sitting sprawled across the wall, eyes wide.

The door opens and her mom walks in with a bundle of clothes in her hands.

“Mom!”

Kat turns and jumps. “What?!”

Sunshine giggles. “You scared the piss out of me! What is _with you_?”

Her mom shakes her head. “I’m _sorry_!”

A pause.

“Your Spider-Man underwear scares the piss out of me. Put your laundry up.”

Kat sets the clothes down and spots the camera. “What are — what are you recording up here? You’re alone!” Her hands fall to her sides. 

“Mom!”

“What?”

“You were making noises. I heard something. I record!”

“You record?” Kat leans forward and laughs. “Just, you thought you heard something so you’re just recording random things?”

“Yes. Mom! Yes, yeah.”

A laugh, then a pause.

“Do you want me to leave now?” 

“Mhm. Mmmmhm. That’d be great.”

Sunshine looks at the camera and mouths, “Oh my goshhhhh!”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The scratching noise never returns.

Sunshine vows to keep her camera with her at all times, just so she doesn’t miss anything.

24/7.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So — ugh.

Sunshine pulls out her camera, hair tied back in a bun.

“So I swear I’m not imagining this. There’s a lady out front who’s _always here_. I swear, she like, shows up, and then she disappears. She goes down the _dark, creepy, long_ lane and.. look, there she is.”

And it’s true. Between two bright, wide trees, a tall woman stands behind the gate. She has waved shoulder-length hair and her face — it’s dark. Unmoving. Her hands are curled at the sides of her hugged gray trenchcoat, black buttons curling up on the side of her shoulder and chest. A black skirt is worn underneath; she has long black socks and midnight shoes. She’s pale, for the little amount of skin she shows.

It’s really fucking creepy.

“She always dresses the same, she doesn’t come up to the house, just... stands there. Looking odd, and weird.” She flips the camera back to her face, turning away. “I’m very tempted to go talk to her except — I’m too scared. Mmm. Being honest. I’m just afraid of her. She’s... yeah...”

When the trees are shown again, the woman is gone.

“Creepy.”  
⠀  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> creepy lady is here... 
> 
> she’s not going away
> 
> :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat is worried and Sunshine comes to terms with the possible ghosts living in her home.

Sunshine can’t play guitar.

Why does she even try?

She sighs, leans over and sees something out of the window. She can’t exactly put her finger on what it is, but it’s freaking her out. 

So, what’s the next best thing to do? Go downstairs and explore.

Sunshine looks around outside with her dogs, and when she turns to walk back inside, she realizes the door is closed.

Great.

Now she’s being messed with.

⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Her mom sits in front of the camera, looking slightly disgruntled and almost — scared?

“Okay, so, um...” Kat leans back, lips tight. “I just.. uh, kind of got on the YouTube page here and watched some of my daughter’s videos. And I’m kind of, um, I’m a little bit freaked out. There’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t know that was going on, and — she would tell me, y’know, some of it, but a lot of it I really.. I really had no idea about.”

She shakes her head. “I mean, I didn’t even know about the lady that — like, that’s just standing —” Kat lifts her body and looks out of the window. “She’s not there right now, but, you — you know, this strange woman is just standing outside of our house, outside of our gate, just, I don’t even know, I don’t even know what to do. I don’t know if I should stay home from work and try to catch her and ask her what she’s doing, or if I should call the landlord and ask them if they know who she is, you know, I — I don’t even know where she comes from, we live on a dead-end street and she walks towards the dead-end and — where’s she going?”

Kat sighs and looks serious. “I don’t know if I should call the police, I don’t know if I should leave my dog outside, I mean, he’s kind of a wuss but... I guess he could come in and protect us or something. I — I’m really not sure what to do so I’m kind of, a little bit, worried and concerned. I wish there was someone I could talk to about it. I feel like they could help me with this. But... there’s really not anyone...”

She turns the camera off.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine and her mom are sitting on the couch, watching TV.

“Legitimately,” Sunshine begins, crossing her arms, “she was like, ‘You know what shirt I’m gonna wear today?’ This one.”

“The ugly one,” Kat chimes in.

“This really ugly one. Seriously, her boobs look _huge_ and — I — I shouldn’t be looking at her boobs but seriously, look at that —”

Kat wheezes. “How can you not though?”

“I mean — OHHH she — she’s a drug addict!”

Kat laughs and nods along. “That’s... sexayyy..”

“Oh, my god,” Sunshine sighs and slaps her hand to her forehead, “I can’t watch this show, we need to change it.”

Sunshine watches her mother change the channel, but Kat becomes serious and looks over. “So, Do I need to worry about the fact that the camera is _always_ recording now?”

“No,” Sunshine snorts, running a hand through her fuzzy hair, “I have friends over — no, I don’t, actually.”

A door slams.

Both women exchange glances and turn their attention toward the source of the noise.

“Did you.. leave a window open, upstairs?”

“No.. Mm-mm. No, I didn’t.” Sunshine smirks and almost looks snobbish.

“You must’ve.”

“No! I — It’s _winter_ , why would I have left a window —”

Kat waves her hands and pulls a finger to her lips. “Wait...”

Sunshine sighs and leans forward. “This is why I leave the camera on.”

“All right, let’s check it out.” Kat grabs the camera and stands.

Her eyes widen. “But — I don’t want to — I didn’t do it last time, why would I do it this time?”

“Because I’m with you.”

“But... mmmm-hmm, that makes me feel so much better, we’re both white belts here.”

They move across the living room in to the kitchen, staring up at the stairs. Kat leads the way up to the dark and stiffens. “Your door is closed.”

Sunshine opens it, looking inside. “Hello...?”

Kat grunts. “What, do you think someone’s gonna answer?”

“Yeah, I do actually.”

“Ghosts don’t talk.”

“Yes, they do, Mom.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine tries to listen for the scratching again. No luck.

“Hey Mom,” she greets as Kat walks by, sitting comfortably in one of the living room chairs.

“What uh... whatcha got there?”

Her mother looks down at two baby monitors on the floor, brow raised.

“Baby monitors.”

“Well, I can see they’re baby monitors —” She sits down, “Why, uh, is there somethin’ you wanna tell me?”

Sunshine nods. “Yes, I’m pregnant, having twins.”

“Excellent. Why do you have a baby monitor?”

“So I can put one upstairs in a second so it can help me hear stuff, y’know?”

Kat smirks. “Oh, you just watched Signs, didn’t you?”

Sunshine laughs softly. “Yes,” she mouths to the camera.

“So,” her mother continues, “what do you think — I mean, I just don’t understand, what do you think you’re gonna hear on this...”

“Stuff, you know, so we don’t have another episode like the other night.”

“Honey,” Kat says in that patronizing voice, shaking her head, “that was just the door, the wind just blew it shut honey.”

“Mom, no, it wasn’t — so, gonna put one upstairs, one downstairs, and it’s gonna work. It’s gonna be great.”

A sigh. “Okay, well, I hope you didn’t spend very much money on it.”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “She’s very supportive.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is proud of herself for catching peanut M&Ms in her mouth.

What has her life come to?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The camera is ready, as usual. Sunshine is sitting on the floor next to her bed. Why not on the bed? Who knows.

“So guys, I’m doing a follow-up with the whole Creepy Lady thing because there’s been a lot of chat about that on YouTube so, follow up.” She looks excited, then blank. “ _Nothing_.”

“Nothing has happened. Creepy Lady hasn’t come back since I posted that video about her lurkin’ outside the front door so... now I spend like all my time.. standing.. downstairs.. looking out the window making sure she’s not there creepin’ on me anymore!”

Sunshine shakes her head and sighs, then waves her arms, annoyed. “And! My mom’s going _crazy_! She stole my camera, I’m sure you guys have seen those videos, yeah, nice, right? GREAT. Yeah. Gonna hide the camera from now on.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She tries to catch voices again on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Nope.

Why would the ghosts do anything in her favor?

Sunshine decides to investigate — yeah, because _that_ always goes well — and stands on the top of the stairs, looking down.

The door slams shut.

Did she mention that she’s home alone?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Her mom is doing another video.

“Guess red light means on..”

Kat adjusts her shirt and looks at the camera. “Okay, so, uhhh, hi.” She laughs awkwardly. “I don’t really know how to do this. I uh, just heard something, like — footsteps? — or something upstairs, and I’m actually home alone, my daughter is at school.”

She sighs. “This is really the first time I’ve had anything happen that made me kind of wonder what’s going on. I just thought that she was being dramatic, because she can be, sometimes, I don’t know if you noticed, but now I’m not so sure..”

Kat nods. “I’ve definitely heard something and I don’t know, I don’t really believe in ghosts. So I’m not really sure what... what I’m saying... okay.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine turns the camera off and hears a voice. Right after. Of course.

She thinks the camera is egging the ghosts on. She’s not sure she should record anymore — and before she began her videos, the spirits hadn’t been as bad. Now it’s bad. It’s scary. It’s frightening.

Sunshine’s had enough of it.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly just here for the tea and i want to see le master but then i realized that’s gonna be part 3
> 
> oh well we can get there for now anticipate creepy lady (creepier edition!)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Creepy Lady makes an appearance. The ghosts are getting worse.

Update on the baby monitors:

Nothing.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
It’s Christmas!

God, is she excited.

Maybe the ghosts are excited too.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is going to try and be more proactive. She wants to learn the history of the house. She wants to take in everything there is to know, ponder, and decide.

Okay, maybe a local expert is a little far, but she still has plans. Maybe they’ll know about other haunted houses. Maybe they’ll know what the hell is going on here and — hopefully — they can reassure Sunshine that Creepy Lady is just that creepy.

Would the little old lady a few doors down know anything?

Maybe the homeowners would know. She’s sure they’ve had people leave the house for weird shit going down. They’d know best out of everyone. 

She _is_ just a teenager, though. Maybe she’s completely off.

Maybe digging deeper into this mystery is a bad idea in and of itself.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Why the hell is someone BANGING on the door when Sunshine is home alone?

She has her camera out, she’s talking about how she loves the smell of books, and she has to be interrupted by whoever is on her front porch.

God, if it’s a ghost —

She walks to the front door, confused, until she sees who it is.

Creepy Lady.

Creepy Lady is standing there.

Sunshine pulls back the screen and hesitates, eyes wide. “..Hello?”

The woman’s eyes flicker around dangerously. It’s almost like she can’t keep her gaze locked on a certain thing.

“Hellooo...” She asks again.

“Is this your house..” Creepy Lady asks, voice raspy and low, eyes dark and brooding. Sunshine can’t detect an ounce of emotion within those words.

“Mmhm..”

A long pause, and the woman finally meets Sunshine’s gaze. “You live here.” Is that a question or a statement?

“Mhm..”

She looks scared, maybe. Or, is that her usual expression?

“Do you know something about my —”

“You can’t be here.”

The words are like poison. It sends ice through Sunshine’s limbs, flicking at her veins and opening up her chest. She can’t move. 

“Why not?”

What else is she supposed to say?

“It’s not safe.”

A long, drawn out pause.

“Leave this house.”

What?

“It’s not safe.”

Double what?

“You MUST leave this house.”

What in the world —

“But —” Sunshine tries to start.

“ _Leave_.”

“You must leave this house!”

“LEAVE! LEAVE! NOW!”

Sunshine backpedals and closes the door. The woman immediately turns and quickly walks away.

“Um.” She looks at the camera, wide-eyed and uncertain. “I don’t know what just happened, but she’s... she’s frightening and I’m definitely not going to the library, that’s for sure.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Follow up on Creepy Lady: Sunshine is hiding in her mom’s room.

Yeah, she’s still freaking out. Normal people don’t come up to your door and yell at you to leave the house that instant. No, that’s what crazy people do. Maybe Creepy Lady _is_ crazy. That would actually make a lot of sense. 

She just feels safe in her mom’s room. A little more.

At least Kat will be home soon.

She doesn’t want to bring up Creepy Lady.

How do you even talk about that?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is kinda pissed that people didn’t like the M&M’s video.

What the hell? It was cool!  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She and her mother are sitting on the couch, sharing a normal evening while Sunshine does her homework. This is what normal families do, right?

“I’m dying.”

Kat looks up. “Don’t die. I’ll miss you.”

“Well, terrible.”

“The world would miss you.”

“They would? My commentary is pretty awesome.”

Her mother looks around the couch. “Where are your glasses?”

Sunshine sighes and pulls them out from under her shirt. “They’re right here.” She leans her head back. “I feel like such a nerd when I wear them though.”

“You are a nerd.”

“I am not a nerd!” She slips the glasses on. “I just — people could see me or something and —”

“Yeah, who’s gonna see you.”

“I don’t know, someone important and stuff.”

“President’s gonna stop by.”

“Yep, he is.”

Kat scribbles something down. “Do you know if you used the rest of the soy milk yesterday?”

“All the soy milk is gone — yeah.”

Her mother groans. Sunshine returns to her homework.

Then, the baby monitor in front of them crackles. The two look up, startled, as it muffles and groans against the speakers. 

“What is that...?” Kat asks, looking toward her daughter.

“It’s the baby monitor.”

“What is it doing?!”

“It’s going off.” Sunshine takes her glasses off and leans forward. It splutters again and she looks up at her mother.

“I just want to point out, I was right.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So, Sunshine and her mother visit the beach for New Years. It’s a pretty nice view, though quite gloomy. 

They’re excited anyway.

Even better? The ghosts aren’t here.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She’s been researching. Sunshine was being truthful when she announced that she was going to dig deeper into her house’s mystery. So, what did she find out?

Well, apparently there was a murder here. It’s sort of freaking Sunshine out but she’s able to calm herself.

No biggie, right?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is organizing cards when the doorknob rattles.

She looks up and tenses. She’s fine. She’s fine. She’s fine.

She’s _fine_.

Something rubs up against the door and she realizes she can’t ignore this anymore. Sunshine places her glasses to the side and straightens, shaking. 

The doorknob creaks again.

“Mom?” she calls out, breathing heavier.

Why is she freaking out?

Scratching. The sound fills the room and Sunshine flinches back. “Mom? Mom! Mom!”

Someone knocks at the door, loudly, and Sunshine rears back on to the bed, screaming her mother’s name. She begins crying and Kat runs in, eyes wide. “Honey? What’s wrong? What happened?”

Sunshine buries her head in her arms and sobs. Kat shuffles over to turn the camera off.

Things are getting worse.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooo things are spicing up
> 
> just kidding. this is nothing. it only gets worse from here. brace yourselves


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine talks about why they moved and experiences her first ghost incident.

It’s mid-day, sunny for once, and Sunshine is sitting inside, wondering why such weird things have to happen to _her_. 

Last night’s events were definitely shaking. Sunshine can’t get it off of her mind. She can’t forget the jigging door handle, the loud bangs pounding on the door, or the ice that spread through her limbs. She still feels fuzzy. Her eyes are dark and droopy while her face stays pale.

She tries to tie up her appearance with a bow in her hair but realizes it probably does nothing. Sigh. She’s going to have to do this video, isn’t she?

The camera flashes red and Sunshine adjusts her seat on the bed. “Hello,” she says hazily, tilting her head. “So, update on everything. I want to tell you a little bit about why whe moved to this particular house.” She raises her arms and looks around. “Because,” Sunshine continues, “now, you know, it seems _crazy_ that we’d even pick this house. You saw the outside, and it’s not an attractive place.”

She shakes her head and sighs. “So, when we were living back where we.. well, lived, my mom was really busy with work and stuff so she asked me to go and look at some houses.” Sunshine breathes. “I went, drove around a bunch of them, and when I got out of the car at this place.. I had a feeling.” Her eyes flicker. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s kind of, I don’t know, _weird_?”

Sunshine turns her head to look out of the window. “It’s strange. I looked through the whole house and liked it a lot — the feeling was there the whole time I was here. And I thought it was gonna be for the good, but I don’t know, maybe now it’s.. for the bad, I’m not sure.” She looks down, playing with her jacket. “So, yeah, we picked this house and moved in and you all know what’s been going on. Creepy stuff — like crazy lady.. but, I don’t know.”

She shifts upward, staring at the camera with her mouth flopped. “Maybe it will get better.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is talking to the camera again. People want her to post more but — well, don’t they understand that she has a life? Besides, most of the videos she tapes are pretty boring (She’s still bitter about the M&Ms). 

What really pisses her off the most is the idea — more than that, the _rumor_ — that her videos are fake. I mean, what’s fake? Is she fake? Is the house fake? Her room, her mother? All the vitamin water she drinks?

It’s ridiculous. None of it is fake.

Though sometimes she wishes it was.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“So, guys, I had this thought — it was a dream kind of thing, like —” 

Sunshine is standing near her door, then visibly stops, hands shaking the camera. “What — is that...”

Her face is slick with sweat as she shuts the light off. The camera splutters and a red glitch contorts the view. She turns the screen around and — oh, what, what in the _world_ is that? It’s a white, pale figure with some kind of cloth wrapped around its body, and it’s standing a little far off but it — it terrifies her. The screen glitches loudly and a muffled, demonic voice speaks.

Sunshine backs away and runs, heart pumping out of her chest. She tells herself it’s okay, that she can deal with this, that she just needs to stay calm.

Yeah, how did that work with the door incident?

She practically stumbles down the stairs into the kitchen, closing her eyes, grimacing. But when she arrives in the living room she sees the back door is open. Why — her mother isn’t down here. What the hell is going on?

Sunshine nears the screen door, trembling. She can’t see anyone outside, so quickly shuts it and tries to pretend nothing happened. The screen flickers with white and red.

Then, the front door opens. Sunshine gasps, wheeling around, green eyes wide. It creaks and lets the cool wind flow through the house, ruffling her hair as she closes in the gap. A demonic scream echoes in her ears when the back door slams open again. Sunshine whimpers, caught between two worlds, fear overtaking her every move and thought.

She — she can’t — “Hello?” she calls, voice breathy and quivering. No one. There’s no one there. She reaches for the door when it swipes in her face, causing a scream to shake her throat and her hands to cover her cheeks.

“I can’t — Mom! I can’t do this, I can’t —”

The screen glitches over her face and her voice, shaping her head to be angled and wavy. Red streaks burst through the camera and it sticks in the same place, stuck on her “can’t”. 

The screen turns black. Sunshine doesn’t even realize her camera had malfunctioned until later. She hadn’t noticed the static when she was recording. That’s — that’s weird, right? That doesn’t usually happen, does it?

Her camera is completely dead now. She figures this out once her mother has calmed her down and kissed her forehead, tucking her in to the bed.

The next morning, Sunshine doesn’t recognize the familiar blinking red light so decides to off-load all of the footage from last night. At least, that’s what she’d _meant_ to receive. Instead, a minute long looped picture of her comes through — at least, she thinks it’s her. It’s her face, red and surrounded with shadows, but her eyes — her eyes are black. She looks absolutely terrifying.

It looks like she’s gonna need to get a new camera.

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New camera!

What’s the first thing she does?

Record, of course.  
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Wow, her mind is so jumbled. She really needs to vent.

Well, for now, she can make a mind file of the things she knows and what happened from that horrible night’s events. For one, she has a nice new camera that _hopefully_ won’t go AWOL like her old one. Her mom wasn’t very happy though. Yeah, Sunshine literally has no money.

Next, the house has been surprisingly quiet. It seems to happen every time she freaks out — maybe the ghosts are showing her a little compassion, just chilling. For now, at least, but Sunshine can take that. 

She’s not quite ready to call in an official, professional person to bless the house or whatever, maybe tell her at least what’s _in_ here, but... she just needs a while. A pastor can always come later, right?

Sunshine purses her lips, thinking back to the other night’s incident. She isn’t sure why she’d freaked out so much — she’s a big girl — because the doors opening and closing isn’t exactly a new occurance. In fact, that’s why Sunshine had started the videos in the first place.

Well, the figure and the staticy thing — that’s new. Very new, and very unwelcoming.

She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She needs a few more days to screw her head on straight before she starts recording again. Maybe then, she’ll know what to do, and will have a clearer vision on her goal for the house. Because truly, all she wants is to solve this mystery and find out why this house attracts so many spirits and, possibly, bad entities.

How bad can it be?  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so soon we’re gonna get into the house’s history (lol i read the titles ahead just to make sure i was ready to end the chapter) and ooo i’m real excited for shit to go down
> 
> but you know. le master. who doesn’t love him


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine researches about a playful entity in her room.

Sunshine’s at the library. She’s hopeful to find something that will help her on her mission — what better place to look?

She picks out a few supernatural books, a spell book, and a haunted places encyclopedia. These will aid her investigation, she can feel it.

Well. She hopes so.  
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Is it possible that Sunshine has a playful entity in her household?

After that whole horrifying night with the doors, she’s not so sure that’s even possible. But today’s experience after the library completely knocks the wind out of her. She’s not scared, really — she’s... relieved. Perhaps the doors had been, in a sense, playful? And things always died down when the ghost(s) realized it wasn’t funny?

Maybe Sunshine is just trying to convince herself, but it seems like a plausible explanation. Of course, there are more than likely several spirits in her house, so it’s doubtful that only one is messing with her.

Damn.

To add to her theory — on her desk, Sunshine has a small unicorn toy by her prized typewriter. Every time she leaves the room and returns, the unicorn is moved to another part of the desk.

Crazy, right?

Though it does always seem to end up right on the typewriter..

Oh well. Just coincidence.  
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Sunshine wants to do a fun video. Something relaxing and — well, generally not as stressful as her ghost captures.

So, she turns the camera on and decides to go for it. “Hello,” she greets casually, looking around her room as she stands. It’s sunny again — she’s hoping winter will turn over soon enough. “So.” She taps her typewriter keys and squints at the screen. “I am going to — sorry nervous habit — I am going to talk about.. _me_ today in this post; ten random facts about myself that you guys get to know because.. you’re special!”

She points at the camera. “So, ten facts. Number one, I am an only child. Number two, I like Jane Austin. A lot. Pride and Prejudice? Favorite book, favorite movie. It’s good — the newer version.”

Sunshine lifts her fingers. “Number three, narwhals. Come on, they’re awesome. They’re so cool. Narwhals. Just... leave it at that. Number four, my favorite band is Vampire Weekend.” 

She mouths ‘They’re awesome’ and gives a thumbs up. “Number five, I screen-print my own t-shirts. Not all of them, but some of them.” She dips the camera to show her shirt. “This is my owl one. You can’t really — ah, my hair, blah blah — if you can’t see it, it’s an owl.” The shape of the bird is golden tinged along a bright purple shirt. “He’s really, really cute. I love owls. It seems to be a lot of what I wear.”

She pulls the camera back up and ponders. “Anyways, number six — I like old stuff. A lot. Clearly, according to my room.” Sunshine messes with her typewriter’s keys. “My typewriter, and ma’ books, and my stuff that’s all... old. So, yeah, clearly.”

Sunshine nods. “Mm. Number seven, which I can’t hold up that many fingers — photography. I’m obsessed. I love it... a lot. Black and white photography is especially cool.” She breathes. “Hmm, number eight, I drink vitamin water addictively. I love it. It’s so good. It might not be a bad thing that I drink so much vitamin water, but man. Love it. It’s the best drink, _ever_.”

She nods vigorously and continues. “Number nine, I do not speak a foreign language at all. Never. Mm-mm. But I do like to talk in a British accent.” She tries to mimic the words. “It’s rather fun. And I’m a little embarrassed I did that, anyways, aaand number ten — I don’t have any friends here. Yet. Cause I’m not a typical teenager. So... I don’t have any friends..”

Sunshine looks a little dejected. “Anyways.”  
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So, she’s just found out that children ghosts exist. It hadn’t even occurred to her before her research. Of course it makes sense, and now she’s thinking that the playful entity in her room _might_ be a kid. I mean, if it’s not a demon attempting to trick her or something. 

She talks to the camera about it, too. “It didn’t even occur to me that there would be... child-like... ghosts.. I don’t know. I just like, thought there were adults and then it just.” She slices her hand down. “Stopped there. I don’t know. I didn’t think it through I guess.” She shrugs, nonchalant. “Made sense to _me_... at the time —”

Sunshine’s bedspread moves and she jerks her head to the side, eyes widening. “Holy crap.” The whole sheet is pulled off. Somehow, she isn’t fazed at all. “I hate things. You guys saw that. There’s nothing here, though.” She picks up the sheets. “I don’t like this. I don’t like when they do this to me. Geez.”  
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Sunshine and her mother visit an old fort during the gloomy weekend, attempting to brighten up their lives with a little field trip. Of course, something weird has to happen.

She’s pretty sure she’s caught a figure somewhere in there.  
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Mom’s back and she’s doing another video.

“So, I got on this YouTubey thing and I noticed there were a lot of comments about the witch lady? Creepy — creepy witch lady, I guess that’s what you guys are calling her.” She’s sitting in the dining room, hair curled with a necklace dangling around her neck.

“You know, the lady who came to the door and has just been.. staring at the house,” she continues, nodding. “I just wanted to tell you guys that I _did_ actually call the cops and they came out and talked to us. We were gonna videotape it but we felt like that might be a little bit... inappropriate with the police there.” She shrugs and waves her arms. “They looked camera shy so we didn’t do that but, um, they just basically said that she didn’t break the law, there was nothing that they could really do about it — she wasn’t treespassing, she didn’t harass, she didn’t threaten, she just...”

She sighs. “I was wondering if we could maybe put, like, a restraining order or something out because she just — stands, out there, but they said no because she hadn’t done enough for that. They just said to keep an eye on it and call them if she came back. It’s kind of a small town, so I think that they’re a little bored and would probably be willing to come back by. I think they’re gonna do some drive-bys to keep an eye out for her but it’s a dead-and street, so..”

Her shoulders slump and she looks around. “We’ll have to see, but, anyways, we just wanted to update you on that and tell you that — that I am aware of it, we are keeping an eye on her, I do want Sunshine to be safe, I mean, she is a 16 year old girl so, we are on it.”

She finger guns and turns the camera off.  
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After all the requests asking her to leave the camera on to catch the horse, Sunshine finally decides to use a flip camera to capture the entity.

And — after three wasted batteries — the unicorn moves, swiftly but softly, almost like it’s floating on its own. She moves the camera farther back and tries again. 

The unicorn does the same thing.

She’s really starting to think that there’s a child ghost in her room.  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cheated and looked ahead and oh wow get ready


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat has an incident.

Sunshine is surprised. In fact, she’s shocked.

She finds it so weird that people are actually interested in her life and would like to get invested in her story. How crazy is that? The internet is a weird place.

Though, her mother has decided that Sunshine spends way too much time doing her little videos and stuff — apparently she’s quite concerned for her daughter’s health and the fact that she _still_ has no friends, but, hey, her YouTube commenters are her friends!

Oh, she also thinks she should buy some new and updated paranormal gear and equipment. Well, more like her mother will buy such things, but — oh! Wait, she could sell t-shirts. That’s actually a great idea! No. No, that’s stupid. No one would want to wear her logo, or purchase a shirt from her. Wishful thinking. 

It would be fun, though.  
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So, Mom talked to the landlord. The camera is in her face immediately.

“What am I doing?” Kat asks, sipping her tea.

“Telling everybody — us — about the landlord,” Sunshine explains, sliding into a chair across from her mother.

“Oh! Oh, the landlord, okay.” She actually looks excited. “Alright, so, our landlord is — am I talking to you or to them?”

“Mm, both.”

“Can you move that a little bit, you’re like right there — perfect.” Kat grins. “Okay, so, the landlord is notoriously hard to _catch up with_.” She squeezes her hands and grits her teeth. “They’ve been, _vacationing_ in _Hawaii_ ,” her mother says fancily, then pauses. “Is there anything on my teeth?”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “No, can you continue?” 

“Alright, so I finally got a hold of them and — you’re right. Do you know how many people have lived here?” Kat points to her daughter.

“Yeah?”

“Like a bajillion.”

“A bajillion, that’s a large number.”

“A lot,” Kat continues. “They cannot keep the house rented and when I asked them why, they don’t know. They’re like, ‘Oh, well, no one tells us why. They just.. don’t want to stay here.’” She squints her eyes.

“They just leave,” Sunshine snorts. “Yeah, that’s logical.”

“Right? So I — I have a feeling that they know more —”

“Than they’re letting on,” Sunshine whispers, finishing the sentence.

Kat nods. “Yeah, that they didn’t want us to move out ‘cause they like it that we pay rent on time and..”

“And cause we’re _awesome_!”

“Yes, so.. then, I asked him about, specifically, remember when the neighbor was telling us that — that she thought there’d been a murder, or something, and the landlord played dumb. He was like, ‘Well, no, there’s never been a murder there’ —”

“Was she blonde?”

Kat sighs and looks to the side. “Uhhh.” She smirks. “I dunno. I was on the phone with them. Um, so, I think we’re gonna have to do a little bit of digging more in the neighborhood ourselves because I don’t think the landlords can tell us much other than that.. yes, a lot of people have moved in and out, there’s been a lot of — they’ve never been able to keep anyone for very long. And even that was kind of pulling teeth, to get him to say even that much.”

She moves her hair behind her ear. “So, not a lot of concrete information, but definitely — other people have not liked living here. Which I wouldn’t say that we don’t like living here because actually I think —”

“I think we like it,” Sunshine agrees, nodding.

“We like it. Other than the..”

“Paranormal side of things..” Sunshine sighs.

“At least you have friends,” Kat points out. 

Sunshine turns the camera to her face and mouths, ‘I don’t have friends.’

“Even if they’re dead,” her mother goes on.

She makes a face. “We’re good, thanks Mom.”  
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“Hey guys, so I have a specific comment that I am deciding to respond to, and I have printed it out and I am going to read it, and you’re going to find out, and it’s going to be —”

Sunshine is facing the camera, ready to reply when she pauses, hears the water continue running. Her brows furrow. “...awesome. My mom has been downstairs with the water running for forever..”

She walks out of the room, moving down the stairs. The camera glitches, contorting her face for a mere second. “Weird..”

Sunshine slips into the kitchen, the evening sun dappling the counters with golden rays. “Mom, what are you doing?” She sounds almost exasperated. Kat is standing over the sink, water running and a large, thick knife in her left hand. Sunshine looks at her mother’s blank face. “Mom.”

She looks down and jerks. Her hand is covered in blood, spilling over her wrist and palm, dribbling down the side of the sink. Kat is perfectly still, almost as if she’s in a trance. “Mom!” Sunshine screams, dropping the camera and rushing to her mother. “MOM!”

“What?” Kat asks breathily, blinking. She drops the knife and begins to gasp heavily, screaming.

Sunshine cries and the two go out of view from the camera. The screen begins to move as if it’s being dragged, and turns on its side before flickering black for a moment. The water continues running. All goes quiet.

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Sunshine is sitting on the couch, Kat right beside her. “Okay,” she begins, looking at the camera, “Mom is fine, she’s fine.”

Her mother shows her bandaged hand, face pale. “It didn’t even — it didn’t even take stitches.”

Sunshine grunts. “It needs stitches. So, I showed her the film and she remembers... nothing.”

Kat nods. “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know how I got cut, but... I was just, doing the dishes and — I do think I heard something.”

Sunshine turns toward her mother. “You heard something?”

“Like, a noise or something, and then I don’t.. I don’t remember anything, and then she was there —” Kat motions toward her daughter, “and I was bleeding all over the kitchen. So.” She sighs. “It may not have anything to do with anything, I may have just.. cut myself. I mean, it happens. A little bit of a klutz.”

Sunshine looks tired. “Yeah, a klutz.” 

“It may not mean anything.”

She narrows her eyes. “It means something.”  
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The duo attempt to distract their minds from the knife situation, so take a field trip around the woods and travel to a ruin.

Sunshine actually feels happy.  
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So, Sunshine is conflicted. She’s not sure whether she should continue the videos or not.

Originally, she’d had no reason to want fans and such. In fact, she’d only made the series so her mother would realize that Sunshine was telling the truth about the ghosts and weird occurances. But now, since her mother believes her, she’s... kind of done. Right?

She’s done everything she’s needed to do. She’s proved her mother wrong and allowed them to have an understanding with the creepy things in the house. She’s even captured Creepy Lady on camera, twice! So. The videos are over.

Kidding, of course, she can never. She’s way too addicted to stop her little series. And she likes the fans. Is that bad? Hopefully not. She just enjoys talking to her fans and having support for once in her life.

It’s nice. Sunshine doesn’t want it to stop.  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. next chapter is gonna be crazy


	8. Chapter 8

It’s a cloudy day today. Rain patters along the window next to Sunshine, sliding down and creating puddles on the ground. She’s in the living room, head ducked with a blue beanie and her glasses on. She’s doing homework, like a responsible teenager, and has her camera on just in case anything crazy happens.

She hears a voice upstairs but shakes it off.

When Sunshine continues to her work a little girl’s laugh fills her ears. She shivers. “Did you guys hear that?”

The giggling continues and Sunshine stiffens, peeling her glasses away from her face. “It sounds like — like children. Upstairs.”

Great.

She moves to lift her camera. “I just want to point out, leaving the camera on was a rather good idea.” Sunshine trudges up the stairs, lips pressed in a firm line. “I should be scared,” she says, “but I don’t think I am. I mean, I don’t _feel_ frightened. I don’t know. Maybe I should be.”

Light floods through the door to her room, spilling across the carpet. She doesn’t hesitate to near the edge of the hallway, until the closest downstairs door slams.

Okay. Is this a child ghost being annoyingly rude, or is something darker lurking here?

She turns, blinking a few times. “I said I was going to do this. I’m gonna do this.” She breathes out. “I’m gonna go downstairs, and see what it was.”

The stairwell is dark and shadowy blankets cover the edges of the screen. Sunshine reaches forward to open the door. Luckily, nothing is standing there. She slips into the kitchen and looks around. “There’s nothing.”

Woah. Wait.

Sunshine pads to the living room table and sees — oh my God, actually? It’s — it’s the unicorn, sitting right by her papers. Her jaw drops. “It was all the way upstairs..”

She shakes, turning the camera to face her. “I guess we have some... rather playful ghosts.”  
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The next few nights pass by quietly, until she’s sitting upstairs in bed and the power clicks off.

First thing of order? Turn on her phone camera and record what the hell is going on.

It’s probably nothing. No reason to be scared. But Sunshine doesn’t want to admit that the camera makes her feel safer. So, perhaps, taking it downstairs with her isn’t a terrible idea. A little extra comfort for the dark.

“Hey guys, so the power went out and I’m using my phone ‘cause it has better light, so.” She slides down the stairs easily, flashlight reflecting off of the white painted walls. “Mom?”

“Honey, where are you?” Sunshine jogs toward the sound of her mother’s voice, eyes narrowed. Kat comes in to view, wearing a thick gray plaid shirt and navy pants. “What is going on?” Her mother walks by, hair flying back.

“I don’t know,” Sunshine murmurs, looking around.

“Wait, is the whole neighborhood out?” Kat peers through the front door’s window. 

“I don’t know, I can’t tell,” Sunshine says, coming up from behind.

“Honey, no, it’s not the whole neighborhood.” Her mother looks alarmed. “It’s just us.” She pauses. “It’s not — I guess it’s _kind of_ stormy..”

“Maybe, just, _our_ power went out,” she suggests, peering through the living room. “I don’t know.”

“I paid the bill —”

Sunshine gasps, goosebumps crawling over her exposed arms. She can hear scuttling across the walls. It almost sounds like an animal, but — it’s inside the house. And it’s close.

“What? Did you hear something?” Kat places a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

She directs the camera toward the bathroom door. The knob is jiggling. It sounds like someone is trying to roughly pull it open.

_“Daddy, please help me!”_

Sunshine and her mother exchange shocked glances. Was that — was that a little girl? Why would someone be in their bathroom? More importantly, why the HELL can she not get out?

She bites her lip. No way it’s a ghost. This is far beyond a normal sighting.

“Is there somebody in there?” Kat’s hushed, panicked voice cuts through Sunshine’s thoughts. They shift closer to the door.

 _“I need help,”_ the child says, voice cracking.

“It sounds like a little girl..” Her mother trails off when the doorknob begins to shake again.

_“It hurts!”_

Kat bites her nails. “We need to go in.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay! We need to go _in_!”

“Shh...” 

Sunshine is staying remarkably calm for the current situation.

_“I don’t know where I am!”_

The door knob tries to turn again. She can hear the child crying inside, desperately trying to barge their way out of the bathroom.

_“HELP ME! HELP ME!”_

The voice sends shivers down Sunshine’s spine. Her mind is doing that thing again — where, where she feels _fuzzy_. She can’t think. Impulse takes over. She needs to act, now. “We need to go in!”

Kat looks terrified. “I don’t want to!”

“We have to!” Sunshine turns to her mother. “We need to go in!”

“No, we need to get out of the house!”

“No, Mom —”

_“Help me!”_

“We need to go! Sunshine, we need to go!”

A sob catches in Sunshine’s throat, causing her breath to quiver harshly. She barrels toward the door, hands shaking.

Kat runs forward. “What are you doing?! Don’t go in there!”

The child bangs on the door, screaming louder and louder for help. Her mother’s desperate voice and the yelling override Sunshine’s senses. She can’t feel anything, really. She just wants the noise to stop.

So, Sunshine throws open the door, and both women gasp loudly. However, the area in front of them is empty. Sunshine sways her camera around the bathroom, touching the shower curtain and ripping it open.

“Okay, what is making that noise?!” Her mother sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. 

“No one’s in here,” she says, wheezing. 

“What is this? What’s on the door?”

Sunshine turns around and screams. It rakes against her throat, clawing its way out of her mouth. Her heart pumps out of her chest and her vision becomes blurry with tears. The door is covered in blood, red drops spilling from the words “HELP ME” written all over. Hand prints have scratched the door and — oh, God, Sunshine can’t handle it, she’s literally going to collapse, what the hell is going on —

Kat drops to her knees, staring at the door. Her voice breaks. “What — what is this?” Toward the bottom they can see holes dented from where a child would have kicked. “Th — Those are scratches and I — I think that’s blood.” Tears spill down both of their eyes. 

The door slams in their face when her mother tries to touch the door. Sunshine screams and nearly collapses, hands trembling so badly she can barely hold the camera. 

The door is locked.

“Let us out!” Kat yells, gripping the door and attempting to swipe it open. “I can’t open it!”

The door suddenly swings wide, almost knocking Sunshine back. She gasps, voice hoarse and raspy. She sobs and flees out of the room, the lights flickering on around her. 

“I’m done. I’m — I’m done!” She flips the camera toward herself, eyes teary. “This is beyond us. We need help. I don’t know what to do.”

Her legs buckle beneath her, and Sunshine is left wondering what a normal life even is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :o


	9. Chapter 9

When Sunshine awakes, she finds that a warm towel has been pressed to her forehead. She blinks drearily, head lifting slowly. She gazes her surroundings before realizing that she’s — she’s in her room. In her bed, as a matter of fact.

Sunshine groans, clawing her fingers through her tangled hair. She needs a shower. And — and then the recognition of last night’s events dawn on her, and Sunshine is left gripping the blankets strewn across her body for comfort.

She doesn’t think she’ll ever forget those screams. Those — those marks on the door, the bloody handprints, the dents where a child had obviously kicked.

Sunshine purses her lips, hands shaking. She’s feeling better, but must have — have fainted. She can recall a blurry image of the lights curling around her unconscious body. Everything after that is black.

Is her mother okay? She worries for a moment, and wonders if the inside of the bathroom door is the same. Maybe she’ll check later. Maybe not. Probably the latter.

A sigh wrenches from her lips and she tucks her head in to her pillow, ignoring the light of noon speckling her sheets. She needs to upload the video and get a — a professional or something in here. That’s the best thing to do.

Though she’s not sure if anyone will be so willing.  
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“Hey guys, so clearly I don’t feel well,” she says to the camera four days later, trying to smile. “I look like crap, don’t I? Whoo. Anyways, so, um, the video — this is my follow up to it.”

She pauses and blinks slowly, trying to think of her words and how she can get them out of her mouth. “We are really worried about it — I know you guys are worried about it too — we’re not, you know, happy with it either, but uh... I think my mom’s gonna get — well, _we_ are going to; my mom’s on the phone right now — but, we’re planning on getting a priest in here to bless and.. maybe get some paranormal people and stuff. I don’t know. We’re really concerned right now, so... we’ll keep you posted, guys. Thanks for your concern. Bye!”

She shuts the camera off, turns on her side, and cries.  
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Sunshine doesn’t want to admit that she’s been having nightmares. It’s hard to leave her room. She doesn’t — she doesn’t want to go downstairs. She doesn’t want to relive the memories.

It hurts. Her heart aches with the pain of that little girl’s screams. She clutches her chest in agony when the blood-stained door flashes in her mind. God. She should’ve convinced her mother to call someone earlier so she wouldn’t have to go through this.

Unfortunately she can’t change the past. But if she could, Sunshine would in a heartbeat.  
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So. Creepy Lady is here. Why does she never have her camera readily available during these events?

Sunshine runs upstairs, turns the screen on, and quickly makes her way back down. “Alright, so the creepy lady from the other day who dropped by and she was all freaking out and stuff —” The camera grows staticy for a moment. “She’s here. She’s outside — I left her outside so I could come and get you guys, and, be my witnesses in case I die today and all that.”

She rushes out of the hallway, sliding down the stairs. Sunshine jogs through the kitchen then stops dead in her tracks, eyes wide. “She — she’s in the house..”

Yep. She is. When the camera is turned, Creepy Lady is there in all her glory, standing still and upright with a box tucked between her hands. There’s some kind of brown writing — or, symbols, maybe? — around the sides. It’s weird. What’s even weirder is that this woman is _in her house_. Without permission.

That’s not normal behavior, is it?

The camera flickers as Sunshine nears the woman. “What are you doing in my house?” she says, voice defensive. Creepy Lady is — well, you guessed, wearing the same thing as always.

There’s a long, drawn moment of silence as the woman stares at Sunshine. “I have something for you,” she finally replies in that monotone voice of hers.

“You... brought me.. a gift?” She looks uncertain.

“It will protect you.”

Creepy Lady extends her arms, holding the box to Sunshine. She creeps closer, examining the paintings all over.

“..Thanks?”

Creepy Lady is quiet, lips pressed in a firm line. “You must never open it.”

“Wh — why not?” Sunshine reaches for the lid.

“Never — NO!”

The camera glitches and spirals, streaks of color coating the screen. Creepy Lady’s dark blue eyes widen as she holds out her hand.

“I just —” Sunshine tries, but is cut off.

“Don’t _ever_ open it!”

“Well, what’s inside it?”

“It will keep you safe.”

“Well, for —”

Creepy Lady shifts, inching her head and wide eyes to the camera. Sunshine can hear her mother near the room.

“Hi mom, this is —” She hesitates as Creepy Lady continuously grows closer. Sunshine backs away.

“What is this?” the woman asks, almost hissing. She waves her fingers over the screen.

“It’s a camera,” Sunshine says, raising a brow.

“No.” Creepy Lady jerks away as if she’s been burned. “No. No. No! NO!” She turns and sprints out of the house, trenchcoat waving behind her. Kat jumps forward, blinking as she watches the woman run away.

“Honey, what is —” Her mother turns with concern, pulling the door shut. “What is going on?”

“She brought me a box.” Sunshine looks down at the large black circle on top, enclosed around a looped cross shape. “It’s supposed to.. protect me and keep me safe.”

“What’s in it?” Kat sets her purse down and leans forward.

“Don’t open it!” Sunshine rears back.

“Why —?”

“She said never to open it!”

“Why?!”

“I don’t know! She said it’d protect me and keep me safe!”

Kat turns to look out of the windows, brows pressed down. She sighs. “Honey, I think we better open it —”

“No! We are gonna go put it in my room.” Sunshine makes that her final decision, spinning on her heel.

That’s that.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So. What the hell does she think is in the box?

Well, it was dropped off by the sketch lady so it’s probably just as sketch. And judging by the drawings marked on the top and sides, Sunshine can back that idea off quite easily.

Her conclusions? She wants to find out what the symbols mean — they must mean _something_ , right? It’s rather heavy, maybe bulky. There’s definitely something inside.

The weirdest part? Nothing has been going on around the house. All the creepy shit that happened before the box came? It doesn’t happen anymore. None of it. She’s even been able to catch good sleep since the two nights Creepy Lady arrived to the house. That being said, Sunshine is pretty sure she believes it will keep her safe, but her only question is — how?

The strange woman hasn’t been standing outside, either. A plus. A very, very large plus. No Creepy Lady lurking around the house. She’s never felt more comfortable in her life.

Sunshine is also motivated to not open the box. Being protected is kind of awesome. She doesn’t want to ruin that. She definitely won’t, not anytime soon.

Things are good.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Still no ghost activity.

The box must be doing its job.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine rolls her eyes and motions toward the camera. “Go ahead,” she announces. They’re sitting on the couch, bright windows sparkling behind them.

“What?” her mother asks.

“Tell them. Tell them, this is like a therapy session, go ahead.”

“You want me to —?”

“Talk to them, yes. Talk.”

“Like, to the camera?”

“Mhm.”

“Why?”

Oh. Did she not mention that the box is sitting right between them?

“Cause we’re bonding.” Sunshine nods and looks at her mother.

“This doesn’t feel like bonding.”

“Just — just _tell_ them how you feel about the box.”

Kat groans and waves her arms. “I hate the box!”

“She hates the box.”

“Okay, alright, so just —” Kat sighs. “I’m gonna look _stupid_.”

Sunshine laughes. “You’re not gonna look stupid, they’re gonna love it.”

“I hate cameras.”

“She hates them.”

Kat shakes her head, breathing out. “I hate the box more than I hate the camera. I don’t — I — I wanna open the box! Can we open the box?”

“We’re not opening the box.”

Her mother makes fists with her hands. “Okay, so, this lady brings this box — we don’t know this person. So, then she brings this box, this _gift_ , and tells us not to open it because it will protect us.”

“Which it has been!” Sunshine points to the camera.

Kat motions toward her daughter. “She says that not much has happened since we... got the box. So, I guess, in that way it’s good. But, I want to open it. And Sunshine doesn’t, and —”

Sunshine rolls her eyes.

“I don’t know why she’s choosing to believe the lady over her own _mother_.”

Sunshine looks like she’s going to laugh.

“Have I steered you wrong before? Have I lied to you? Have I endangered you in any way?”

“Yeess,” Sunshine says dreamily, waving a fist in the air.

“Outside of... this house, which _you_ picked by the way. I’ll remind you of that.”

Sunshine looks offended for a moment then smiles at the camera. “ _I_ did indeed actually pick the house.”

Kat goes on. “So, now whenever she leaves the house, she hides the box.” Her mother looks exasperated. “She knows I’m going to try and open it.”

“She does!” Sunshine exclaims, scowling. “She like, searches the room all the time which, I have now found some _very_ good hiding spots.” She smirks.

Kat grunts. “I’m not searching just for the box. Drugs. There’s other things that teenagers might have.”

Sunshine rolls her eyes again. “You know I don’t have drugs. Anyways, so, update, box — _smells_.” She holds it up to her mother’s nose and she grimaces.

“The box really smells,” Kat agrees. “Which is another reason why we should _open_ the _box_!”

“We’re not _opening_ the box.” Sunshine shakes her head.

Her mother sighs. “Can we at least put it outside?”

“We’re putting it outside. We’re putting the box outside! Look!” Sunshine stands, walking to the back door. “Compromise! Whoo!”

“I am the mother,” Kat calls from behind.

“She’s a little cranky,” she whispers to the camera.

“Cranky cause the box _smells_!” her mother says back.

Sunshine lets the warm winter air shift over her exposed skin and lays the box on the grill. “There, it will lie.”

She sighs. “The box. Good. We’re done.”  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woah we don’t have that long until part 2 cool
> 
> (that’s two parts closer to nolan and one to le master it’s all i’ve ever wanted)


	10. Chapter 10

So.

Literally nothing is happening. It’s boring Sunshine to death.

She — she misses the ghosts. And it’s.. weird, to her. Because these spirits have given her nightmares, they’ve made her terrified of the dark and afraid to sleep in her own bed.

But there are good spirits too, right? Maybe the bad ones are getting to her. 

Ugh.

She just misses it all.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
They’re opening the box.

“Okay,” Sunshine says for the camera, sighing. “Go ahead.”

“What?” Kat asks in a murmur.

“Tell them.” Her voice is clipped.

“You want me to?”

Sunshine looks bewildered. “Yes! You! You’re the one that’s deciding to open the box, you get to tell them about it!”

Kat scratches her head. “Okay. So, the box.” She leans forward to take it in her hands.

“Smells,” Sunshine adds, then covers her nose.

“The box has gotten really..” Her mother makes a face of discomfort when the box is pulled closer. “Really ripe. Worse than it was before. It’s — it was in the backyard and it was smelling up the whole house. Inside the house, even though the door was closed. We didn’t even go in the backyard. It smells.. upstairs, it smells in the basement. It smells out front! And — and the neighbors are starting to complain so..” She pushes her hair back. “We don’t know what to do.”

Sunshine looks annoyed as Kat continues. “The lady hasn’t been back, so we can’t ask her about _why_ it’s smelling. So.. we decided — we decided we’re gonna open the box.”

“ _We_ ,” Sunshine mutters, rolling her eyes. “So, here goes nothing. We’re opening the box.”

The camera is angled toward the lid. Kat begins unraveling the top, lifting it slowly. “No curse on the house, no blowing up — okay, that’s good. Good sign.”

“I thought something would happen.” Kat places the lid to the side. In the box, there are crumpled newspapers thrown in, with pictures of — wait.

“Is that a _picture_ of me?” Sunshine growls, leaning forward.

“Where is this?” Her mother picks up the photo, which has a cross with a curled top circled in black. It’s of Sunshine — she’s standing outside, camera in hand, most likely videoing something.

“Is that on the back porch?” Sunshine’s voice drips with panic.

“I think it is... what, what are you doing?”

“Filming but _why_ — why’s that circled, why’s that sign on there?”

“I don’t know what that means,” Kat murmurs, turning the photo over.

“Why is it in the box?!”

“I don’t understand.” Her mother sounds just as confused as she is.

“I’m not liking this.” Sunshine turns the camera towards herself and raises her eyebrows.

“Are there more pictures?” The newspapers have speckles of red on them, growing more crimson the lower they are.

“Is that blood,” Sunshine asks, voice shaking.

“I think it is..”

“Oh. I don’t do blood. Mmm.”

Kat peels away the papers, and a large splotch of ruby sifts through. “Oh! Just —”

“There’s a lot of blood,” Kat whispers.

The more they explore, the more there is. And then, hidden in the corner of box, is — is — is a _heart_. Sunshine thinks she’s actually going to throw up.

“Okay, all right, we’re done.” Her mother drops the newspapers back inside and throws the lid on. Sunshine is still with shock. 

“That’s sick...”

“Just — we’re just gonna put it —” Kat stumbles as she pushes it away on the table.

“Pretend we didn’t open it—”

“I think, I think we should just put it out — out back in the back storage shed and... we’ll just, tell the neighbors a cat died, or something, something underneath the house. I don’t know what else to do.” Her mother looks just as horrified as she is. “Why — why does it smell so bad? What, what is that picture?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think the lady did it?”

“No, it’ll be fine, mommy — it’ll be okay.” Sunshine is pretty sure she’s just trying to convince herself of that. “I promise. And, and, what would —”

The lights flicker off.

Kat gasps. “Was — was that the lights? What? Where’s the flashlight?”

Sunshine stumbles. “It’s — it’s up in my room.”

“Why is it in your room?!”

She chokes back the words she wants to say, the words she wants to scream. But they clog in the back of her throat and die down with her rumbling fury. Her nightmares are still there! She’s terrified of the shadows that consume her at night! Why _wouldn’t_ she have the flashlight in her room?

“Because I was using it!” she instead lies, jumping up. 

Kat breathes in heavily. “Where’s the breaker?”

“It’s — in the kitchen, I think.”

“All right, let’s go see if we can..”

“I don’t — I don’t like the dark.” She can’t admit to the fear wrapping up her spine, or the goosebumps crawling over her arms, and the flashes of red she sees in her gaze.

“This is cause we opened the —!”

The lights flash back on. Sunshine stands, eyes wide. “We shouldn’t have opened the box. We shouldn’t have opened the box.”

Kat doesn’t respond.

“We’re not opening the box. Ever again.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
That night is sleepless. Sunshine can hear something clawing at her door, but she ignores it anyway. Plays it off as a nightmare. Maybe she’s lucid dreaming. This can’t be real.

Fuck. They shouldn’t have opened the box.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The next few days go by with lower activity than expected. Sunshine is still having trouble with falling asleep. Maybe doing a fun video will help, y’know — something she enjoys.

“So guys,” she greets the camera, tilting her head as she stands in her room. “I’ve decided I’m gonna do an entire post about pandas! Like —”

A scream from Sunshine’s mother echoes from downstairs. She whips to the side, lip quivering. “It’s — it’s my mom.”

She can hear Kat crying. “Oh no! Oh, god, come here! Honey! Come here!”

“Mom?!” Sunshine yells, standing at the head of the stairs. Everything below is dark. The lights have gone off again — but, seemingly, only on the bottom floor.

“Mom! What’s wrong?!” She races down into the kitchen, everything shadowy. Her mother cries and cries, begging for her help.

“Mom?!” Sunshine jerks her head around, attempting to spot Kat. She can see that a light is on in the living room and hesitates. Why — why did the noise suddenly just stop? Why is her mother silent now?

Horrible, gruesome pictures come to her mind. She throws herself into the living room and — and, her mom is standing in front of the television, her back illuminated by the lamp, eyes closed. Unmoving. Quiet. Is she even breathing?

“Mom what’s wrong?” Sunshine pauses then nears her mother, sucking her teeth anxiously. The screen glitches red, contorting. “Mom, are you okay? Mom!”

She still doesn’t move.

Sunshine’s eyes burn. She flicks her hand up to claw at her face until — until she realizes that she’s crying. She’s so, so scared. 

There’s a heavy breath behind her. It blows down her neck, wrapping around her skin and sinking into her bones. She whips around, a gasp flying out of her throat, teeth clattering. 

Another noise sounds behind her, in the living room. And when she turns, her mother is gone. Empty space is left. It’s as if — as if Kat hadn’t even been standing there. “She — she’s gone.”

Sunshine stumbles forward, heart lurching out of her chest. “Mom? Mom...” Her legs bend beneath her and she drops the camera, a sob echoing around her.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” The voice is so, so soothing. She cries out and drops forward, until warmth hits her like a fuzzy blanket. Her mother’s arms wrap around her and pull Sunshine in to her chest.

She just sobs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more ghost activity to come
> 
> had fun with this chapter
> 
> ALSO i realized that nolan doesn’t appear until season 4 wtf that’s 3 more parts oh well it’s worth it


	11. Chapter 11

Sunshine doesn’t want to think about it.

Her mother doesn’t ask many questions. Just puts her daughter in bed and checks on her every few hours to make sure she’s okay.

Sunshine isn’t okay.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
It’s been three days since she uploaded the video of her mother — or, or _not_ her mother — and Sunshine realizes she needs to do a follow up. To convince her watchers that she’s feeling fine. Maybe she’ll even convince herself.

(No one needs to know about the nightmares.)

“Hey everybody,” she greets the camera, trying to sound chipper. “So, my goal for right now is to track down the creepy lady because.. I’ve decided things were much better when she was around.” Sunshine nods. “Because.. I don’t think she’s as.. creepy as I decided she was. I mean, you know, she gave me the box with the.. animal, I guess, body parts, I don’t know. Animal.. creepy.. things..”

She laughs a little. “I mean, when she gave me that with the picture of me I was — I was much more afraid. It was much more frightening. So.. I think, I think I need to find her, ‘cause, it was still creepy, but better when she was around and we hadn’t opened the box.”

Sunshine grunts. “Yeah. Blah.”

She shuts the camera off.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine gets something weird in the mail in the days following her latest video.

It’s a small envelope, and when opened, a paper clearly says “THEY ARE WATCHING YOU” in a large, slanted sentence. A picture is tucked behind it, black and white and depicting what appears to be a man with a hand around his daughter. He’s wearing a tuxedo and a striped tie, while the girl is in a dark dress curled around her body.

That’s not what’s creepy, though.

It’s the fact that both of these people have white bags — maybe cloths? — over their heads.

Of course, it disturbs Sunshine. She’s pretty concerned, and some part of her itches to know more. She’s wondering who gave her the letter in the mailbox — seeing as she hasn’t told anyone in her neighborhood about the ghosts (well, aside from Creepy Lady, but who knows where she lives), and she hasn’t had her address leaked on the internet, so it’s definitely weird.

Sunshine isn’t sure it actually is Creepy Lady. She’s more of a “go and do it” kind of person, rather than acting mysterious and unknown. But maybe she’s wrong. Maybe it _is_ Creepy Lady sending her some kind of message. It’s definitely possible. 

Or, the most plausible answer, is that it’s a prank. Sunshine doesn’t really want to think about it, seeing as it’s so _conveniently_ timed with the other shit going on, but she knows she can’t trust it. Hell. Maybe she can’t even trust Creepy Lady.

Well. She’s going to think on it more. Perhaps it’s good news. This could mean she _doesn’t_ have a demon in her house. Maybe her mother really is fine. Just having a bad reaction to the weird things going on.

She purses her lips and sighs.

When will things ever get better?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine finds a Ouija board at the toy store.

Maybe she should use it.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
To distract from all the other terrible shit, Sunshine is finally selling her shirts. She’s actually really, really happy. It’s kind of awesome.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine makes a friend.

He doesn’t stick around that long, but it’s nice. Having someone to talk to other than her mother and her camera.

Not that she doesn’t like it. Sunshine just... wants something new. She’s a little lonely, even if she doesn’t like to admit it.

The nightmares aren’t as bad. That’s another plus, right?

It seems like — dare she say it, it seems like things are getting better. 

Knock on wood.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Some girls at school try to spread rumors about her.

Joke’s on them — no one knows who Sunshine is.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The more she thinks, the more Sunshine wonders. What if the — the spirit that had clawed and pounded on the door that one night had actually been the girl in the picture?

Maybe it’s a long shot, maybe she’s way off, but Sunshine can’t determine it out to be anyone else. The only question is why she’s wearing a cloth over her head.

Weird. 

Sunshine has decided that the photo isn’t fake, either. Especially if these are the ghosts haunting her. 

Still. The bags are a little unnerving.

Oh well. She’ll have to keep pondering.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So the creepy lady — Sunshine is going to refer to her as Creepy Lady now — has been pacing around outside. Sunshine goes to grab the camera as quickly as possible before she loses the woman. She needs this on camera.

A breath through her lips. Eyes closed. She’s going to talk to Creepy Lady.

Sunshine creeps next to the door and watches the bleakly-dressed woman circle closely around the street. She lurches forward and sprints through the front yard, gasping and throwing herself through the gate. And when she turns, Creepy Lady — she’s all the way down the street.

What the hell. She was just over here. Literally, Sunshine _just_ saw her. There’s no way she could’ve made it all the way over there in five seconds or less.

It greatly unnerves her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wasn’t lying when i said more ghost stuff is coming up just not this chapter lol my bad


	12. Chapter 12

Sunshine’s been job hunting in mid-March.

How depressing.

I mean, she guesses it’s not that bad. Just babysitting. But no one wants to hire a cute 16-year-old girl for some reason. Ugh.

Sunshine also realizes that the ghosts have been around for almost four months now. At least, making themselves apparent. It’s crazy. Time has passed so quickly.

Who knew she’d be making videos about terrifying spirits come next year?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So.

Sunshine catches some footage while watching TV with her mother.

It scares her — a lot. But she still wants to share it with her followers. For the people that have always supported her. They deserve that, at least, right?

She’s honestly — ugh. She can’t even speak.

The video is Sunshine and Kat — sitting on the couch, a blanket wrapped around their legs, smiles on their faces. Of course, she always keeps the camera on now, but she’d never expected to catch _this_.

In the background, unbeknownst to both women, a tall man in a tuxedo is standing. His head moves slowly, fingers curling, and he’s — he’s almost transparent against the kitchen wall.

And guess what’s on his head?

He seems to dissolve before reappearing closer to Sunshine, chin curved toward her.

Then, just like that, he’s gone.

Sunshine is speechless.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is smiling at her mother.

“Should we show ‘em?”

“Yes,” she grins. “Well I’ve already talked to them about it.”

Kat nods. “So they’re not gonna be surprised when we go WHAAAA.” They lift the Ouija board on the table.

“No,” Sunshine answers.

“Can I just say, I thought this would look less cheesy.” Kat raises a brow as she inspects the board box. It’s painted blue and purple, with large letters spelling “OUIJA.” Then, up top, it reads: “The Mysterious, Mystifying Game.”

“Yeah, well, we bought it at a game store,” Sunshine defends, placing a hand on the lid.

Kat pauses. “Good point.”

Sunshine looks at the camera. “I mean, I was — I was there, she wasn’t, so I should know. So —”

“It’s just my credit card. Awesome.”

“It glows in the dark though,” she continues, pointing to the cover. “Still love that.”

“Should we turn the lights off?” Kat smirks then laughs. She claps her hands as if the bulbs will go out just like that, then pouts. “It didn’t work.”

Sunshine looks over the board. “Mistifeeing — mistifeering — mystifying,” she laughs, “would be the word I’m looking for.”

“How’s that public education workin’ out for you.”

“It’s terrible.”

Kat tilts her head. “I don’t understand what’s the big deal about this.”

Sunshine grunts. “One two three four five six..” She turns it over to show the camera. “That’s all a Ouija board is apparently, guys.”

In the background the camera flickers and muffles. The man in the tuxedo walks into the frame, standing behind the kitchen counter as they sit in the living room.

“I just think this is dumb,” Kat continues. Neither notice the little girl with the bag over her head sitting over the dishwasher. Both father and — most likely, daughter, — watch the duo.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna work,” her mother says, raising a brow as they read the back of the box. She smirks and uses a mystic voice. “Ouija knows all the answers~”

Sunshine chuckles and mimics the voice. “It’s only a game, isn’t it?~” Kat throws the board down. “I don’t know. We’ve decided, we’re not gonna use it.”

The spirits in the kitchen flicker away as the Ouija board is placed back inside the box. “Let’s just watch Easy A!” Kat laughs. 

She smiles as her mother stands up. “Apparently we’re done, guys.” 

“That’s dumb,” Kat calls as she walks away.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is filming. She’s explaining her busy weekend then sighs, scratching her head. “Another reason I’m gonna do a video is to talk about.. the picture and.. the lurking ghosts.”

She looks unnerved. “They’re clearly getting stronger. Much much stronger. But — ghosts can’t hurt, people, right..? No? Right?”

Sunshine isn’t sure if she’s convinced on that yet.

“Anyways,” she goes on, “I’ve decided that the people in the photo — the ghosts in the photo — are my ghosts that are lurking about the house trying to... do mean things. Uh, my last question is why did I have the picture? I mean, they’re in my house, but why.. did I get it — like — why did they give it to me?”

She shakes her head and looks around. “I don’t know. A bunch of mysteries. Anyways. Blah!”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Mommy, I have a question for you,” Sunshine begins, turning the camera to her mother in the kitchen. She’s sitting in the dining room, looking especially happy today. 

“No.”

“Why, Mom?” Sunshine’s voice grows annoyed. 

Kat sighs and puts her phone down. “What.”

“It’s important, it’s about the stuff,” she points out, blood bubbling in her ears when her mother looks out the window and stuffs her hands in her jacket pockets. She’s not even listening!

Kat turns her head, glaring at Sunshine. “About your homework?”

“No.” She makes a face.

“T — turn it off,” her mother snaps, waving her hand in exasperation.

“Why?!”

“Why do you need it on?”

“Because I —” Sunshine’s voice cracks in disbelief, “I’m asking you a question that _relates_!”

“I’m tired of it.” Kat’s face falls blank.

“Mom..!”

“Just.. turn it off.” Her mother turns and begins walking toward the fridge.

“Mom! What is your problem? You’re like, freaking out!”

Kat ignores her.

“Mom!”

She turns, clearly aggravated. “What?”

Sunshine stammers. She’s not even sure what to say. 

“You need to focus on your homework,” Kat says, filling the drawn silence and facing her daughter. 

“Why?”

“This is taking up too much time.”

“It is not.” Sunshine curls her fingers.

“Yes it is.” Kat’s voice becomes clipped.

“ _Mom_.”

“Your English teacher called me today and said you did _not_ turn in that project. The one that you spent all that time on is what you _said_. Were you really just on YouTube?”

“No!”

“Then why did you not turn it in?” Her mother sounds tired. Very, very tired.

“I did.”

“Why would he say that?”

“Mom! You’re gonna believe the English teacher, not me?”

“At this point,” Kat growls, “yes.”

“ _Excuse me_?”

Silence. “I don’t — I just — I don’t want you doing..” Sunshine gets up to return to her room. “What — where are you going?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Sunshine spits.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So. Her mother is pissed. Like, _really_ pissed. Shocker. But.. well, Sunshine made the mistake of showing her the video — the Ouija board one — and well, she was already kind of cranky. Bad idea.

Her mom’s planning something. Sunshine’s not sure what it is, exactly. Probably something about moving. That being said, she’s cutting Mom out of the deal. They won’t be talking about this, she won’t show her any more damn videos, they’re done. Done.

Well. She’s not sure she can keep her mother off YouTube.

Oh. Hiding her computer. Not sure how she’ll do that. It’ll be interesting, though.

She’s gonna find Creepy Lady. Mom doesn’t need to know now, though. Nope. It’s all a big secret.

Shh.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Alright, so I talked to the landlord.”

Sunshine is sitting on the couch, iPad in her hands. She looks confused and turns her head up towards her mother. “Why?”

“I gave her our notice.” Kat sits beside Sunshine, whose jaw promptly drops.

“E — excuse me?”

“They — they agreed to let us out of the lease.” She looks like she’s struggling to find the right words. “And.. I gave her our notice. I think we need to move.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “Why?!”

Kat looks suddenly annoyed. “ _Why_? I don’t know, hmm, let me think, why.. There’s not enough room for us~”

Sunshine can’t help but laugh, then grows serious as her mother continues. “I — I’m so _tired_ , aren’t you _tired_?”

“Yeah, but we’re not done,” she insists, inclining her head. 

“I think we are done.”

“We’re _not_ done.”

“I think we are.”

“Mom!”

(Don’t tell her about the nightmares. Don’t tell her about the nightmares.)

“Sweetie,” Kat begins in that pompous way of hers, “I know that we’re a team and... we always make decisions together. But, I think in this case, I’m gonna have to pull the mom card.”

“Mom! You never pull the mom card.” Sunshine sounds irked.

“Well, guess what?” Her mother furrows her brows. “You’re _16_. It might be time. It — there’s too much, you’re not focusing enough, there’s just not — it’s too much.”

Silence.

Kat pats Sunshine’s leg and stands. “Sorry babe.”

She watches her mother leave. She’s never been so angry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shit. we got like. 2 or 3 more chapters before part 2
> 
> fuck yeah nolan and le master grow closer and closer each day


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i’m shooting for one more chapter

Creepy Lady makes another appearance.

Sunshine runs to grab the camera, eyes wide. “Okay, so I’ve seen the creepy lady again. I’m determined I’m gonna get her this time, I’m _going_ to talk to her.”

She looks out of the front door window. “Is she coming..? Maybe she’s not coming back. Hold on. I don’t know..” Silence, then excitement. “There she is.”

Sunshine practically leaps in to the front yard, running out of the gate and stopping in front of the woman, dressed as dull as usual. “Wait!”

Creepy Lady angles her head toward Sunshine, eyes narrowed.

“I need your help.”

The woman’s face is blank. “I already helped you.”

“I know, you gave me the box..”

“I gave you the box.”

“I opened the box.” She feels a little nervous.

Creepy Lady’s eyes to wide and her jaw clenches. Horror. 

“I know, I know, I’m sorry!” Sunshine goes on, fiddling with her jacket. “I shouldn’t of!”

“I told you _not_ to open the box.” Annoyance and rage are buried within those words.

“I know!”

Creepy Lady’s lips press together as she begins to walk past Sunshine.

“Wait! I need your help!”

The woman stops, still facing away.

“Please?”

Creepy Lady turns, looking unsure.

“Please help me. Please. Bad stuff’s happening.” 

The woman shifts closer. “What kind of stuff.”

“Bad stuff! Like — my power keeps going out, and the ghosts, they’re back. Please help me.”

Creepy Lady sighs heavily, shoulders stiff. “Okay.”

Relief floods over Sunshine, tingling her limbs. “Thank you,” she breathes.

The woman doesn’t respond, just turns and walks away.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Her mother has set a date to move out of the house. They’ll have a temporary place to stay and.. it all just sucks. Sunshine is pissed, to be honest. Mom is too. Not good. They’re always fighting. Always upset at each other.

It’s just not working.

Sunshine is more pissed because the creepy lady could come back and she would never get all the answers. Because she wouldn’t even be here.

And — and if they move away, she won’t even get to finish her adventure! She won’t get to find out why the ghosts are here and what they want and all that and — ugh!

Her little adventure is dwindling down to nothing.

It feels horrible.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She’s hearing noises.

Out of impulse, Sunshine grabs the camera and turns it on, slightly comforted by the blinking red light. But her neck hair is standing and her eyes are wide and rimmed darkly and — and she doesn’t know what’s going on.

Something claws at the door and she gasps. The screen glitches out with a high-pitched scream. The doorknob turns back and forth. “Go away! What do you want?!”

She cries out as the door flies open, swinging to the side and revealing nothing but empty space. “What do you want?” Sunshine closes her eyes, trying to breathe. “I — I have to go downstairs. I have to find out what it is. I don’t want to. I don’t want to, I don’t want to.” She begins to cry but stands up anyway. “Come on. Man up. Do it.”

There are a few lights on down below, and she figures her mom is doing — well, something. Maybe freaking out. But it’s fucking terrifying. 

The screen glitches again and, when it returns to normal, a girl in a dark dress with a bag over her head is standing at the foot of the stairs. Sunshine screams and the spirit runs to the side, out of sight.

She’s standing there, shaking, jaw quivering, but she knows she has to continue. She needs to find out what’s going on. Sunshine breathes in and runs down the stairs, waving her camera around.

The girl is gone.

Sunshine slips in to the living room, then gasps when the front door clicks open. There’s no one outside. 

Then, the cabinets in the kitchen creak open. No one is there, either. In — in fact, _everything_ in the kitchen is open. The stove, the drawers, the pantry. She’s so. SO SCARED. What does she do?!

A thud sounds behind her. Sunshine whips around and starts sobbing when the tuxedo man appears. He’s still and silent. The camera glitches harshly. 

Then he seems to dissolve in the air. “Go away..!”

She turns to the side and a scream claws at her throat. The little girl is standing outside, touching the glass with a curled, outstretched hand. Sunshine blinks, holding the darkness for a few moments, before opening her eyes again.

The girl is gone.

“Wh — What are you doing here?” Sunshine nears the window, cheeks wet with tears. All of the doors around her open at once and she begins to sob, petrified. She can hardly move. Where is her mother?

Sunshine walks around, holding her breath as she closes the doors. The teen looks out on the front lawn, walking outside and letting the cool breeze flow through her hair. “There’s no one out here.”

A click makes her jump. Sunshine whips her head around, trembling. The ghost girl locks the door and stands at the window before slipping away. Sunshine cries. She’s locked out.

Maybe the back door?

(If it weren’t for her mom and her burning curiosity to find out who these ghosts are and what they want, she would’ve ran from the house long ago.)

Sunshine runs around the gate, pressing her hands to the glass as she stands on the back porch. It’s locked, too. Panic takes her over.

The camera flickers off and on. Sunshine is back in the house. All of the lights are on. “Is anybody here?” she calls out, eyes wet.

The bathroom door opens. She stands there, dumbfounded, glaring into the dark room, hands curling around her camera. Can she admit that she hasn’t been back in there since that night? That — that she’s still mortified of going inside? Even looking near the area? 

“Go away,” she says, voice weak and crackly. “This is my house..”

A dark growl echoes in her ears. Sunshine stiffens, then a white, bagged head jerks out from behind her, yelling something in a demonic voice. She screams as hands wrap around her throat, claws sinking in to her skin. Sunshine drops the camera and is shoved into the bathroom, wailing and banging on the locked door.

In the fire, the picture of the father and daughter is flickering with embers.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is at her mom’s friend’s house. She’s sitting in the corner, eyes dark and nose snotty from crying so much. She can’t — she can’t concentrate. She doesn’t want to be alone. She’s so. fucking. scared.

God. She doesn’t even know how to breathe. The bruises along her neck burn and ache, even with a minuscule action like turning her head. The scratches along her wrists feel like flames are lapping the insides of her skin. 

She’s not okay. She’s not. But she can pretend to be, for the camera.

She starts breaking down when she thinks about being locked in the bathroom. That horrible, horrible bathroom.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So. It’s been almost a week of staying at her mom’s friend’s house. They’re going home later to get clothes and other things for the weekend and will see how it feels to walk back in.

Sunshine isn’t enthusiastic, to say the least.

At least her mother promised not to leave her alone after dark. That’s — that’s comforting. It truly is. Maybe she doesn’t have to feel so scared anymore.

If they ever go back.


	14. Chapter 14

They’re back home, looking through their rifled belongings, when Creepy Lady arrives.

Sunshine already has the camera in her hands. “Okay so Creepy Lady’s here to help me,” she says quickly, opening the front door. The woman is standing there, quiet. “Hi.”

“I’m here to help,” she murmurs.

“C — Come in.” Sunshine steps aside and let’s Creepy Lady walk inside. The woman looks around cautiously before continuing. They share a knowing glance.

Out of her pocket, Creepy Lady pulls out a thick sage stick. “I need fire.”

Sunshine rushes to the grab the lighter, holding the flame over the herb. The woman is staring wide-eyed at the long plastic stick but says nothing more. 

Once the sage is crinkling with embers, Creepy Lady blows the smoke and begins sweeping around the house. First, the kitchen; she begins muttering things under her breath, words Sunshine can neither hear nor understand.

“Where do you sleep.”

Sunshine gapes then turns to the stairwell. “Here.” They travel up, Creepy Lady following slowly. “It’s the last one on the right.”

They enter the bedroom and the woman swirls the sage in each corner, letting the wisps of smoke fill the air, continuing to murmur — blessings, maybe?

Creepy Lady turns. “We’re going to the bathroom.” Sunshine’s blood runs cold but she follows her anyway. She — she can’t be scared now. Maybe this is how she gets over her fear. By knowing that nothing bad will ever happen in there again.

They retreat downstairs and both stand before the bathroom door. The woman is still as she looks around, no emotion crossing her features. Creepy Lady lifts the curtain back and stares at the back of the door, pausing.

Blood. Handprints. Holes. Words. They flash in Sunshine’s mind and she nearly crumples to the ground. She wants to get out. She needs to get out.

There’s a pause as the woman blesses the door, sighing before pulling it all the way open. “Go,” she orders, motioning out. Sunshine gladly complies.

Next is the living room. Creepy Lady turns. “Now you. Be still.”

Sunshine looks worried as the stick is brought around her body, smoke filling her senses and burning her eyes.

“My work is done.”

The woman wastes no time escaping from the house as quickly as possible, throwing open the door and walking down the front yard path.

“Thank you...?”  
⠀   
⠀   
⠀   
It’s quiet.

So, so quiet. 

Insanely quiet. It’s unnerving. It’s different. It’s _weird_. She can’t describe it. 

Maybe Creepy Lady could end up being her hero.  
⠀   
⠀   
⠀   
They’re sitting on the couch, just like old times, and Sunshine laughs. “Hey guys,” she greets, waving her arms in her mother’s face. “So, update on Creepy Lady —”

“Creepy Lady, really?” Kat laughs.

“Yeah, that’s her name,” Sunshine breathes, smirking.

Her mother wheezes. “That’s not — I don’t think that’s her name. Is that what you’ve been calling her?”

“Well, not to her face, that’d be rude.” Sunshine makes a face.

Kat laughs loudly. “Creepy Lady, please, come in.”

“Come help us~” She shakes her head and pulls her hair back. “No, well, I don’t think she has a — no, she probably has a real name.”

“I think she has a real name. I don’t think she was born —” Her mother laughs, “and her mom said, ‘Hey, we’ll call her Creepy Lady.’”

“Her name’s probably like.. Lidya or something.”

“Mm. Lidya?”

“Lidya. That was the name I thought of first.”

“Really? I was thinking like... Helena.”

“Helena~”

“Helena Bottomcurter. Cause her hair’s a little..”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “Anyways, back to the point of the video—”

“There’s a point?”

“Yes, there’s a point of this.” She chuckles. “Um, that, nothing has happened since she came and blessed the house with that stinky stuff. So.”

Kat nods and actually looks happy. “It’s been good. Quiet.”

Sunshine motions to the both of them. “She’s slept better, I’ve slept better.” 

“The power has stayed on,” her mother mentions.

“Yay for power!” 

“The uh.... everything, it’s been really — a relief.”

“Solid, it’s been solid.”

They both make a thumbs up to the camera.

“Oh.” Sunshine raises her arms. “So we don’t have to move.”

Kat smiles. “We don’t have to move. The landlord is... _very_ happy.”

“Yeah. It’s cause they can’t get anyone to stay in this house. BUT. The whole point of making these videos was to convince my mom, so that she would believe.” Sunshine looks over at her mother. “And do you believe, now?”

Kat raises her eyebrows. “Believe what?”

Sunshine smiles, using her ‘obviously’ tone. “That there are — things in this house? And that, I mean, I’m awesome?”

Her mother wheezes. “Oh, I already believed that. Second part. Uh, yeah, I think you proved your point.”

“I proved my point.” She nods. “I have.”

Kat stares off. “You could have just written me a letter.”

Sunshine snorts. “Yeah, whatever. Like a letter would have worked!”  
⠀   
⠀   
⠀   
So. This is goodbye.

It’s still been quiet. She’s been getting homework done. Making friends.

It’s all been going well.

Kidding. This isn’t goodbye. She isn’t done. But, this is just ‘proper.’ She’s gonna continue on this paranormal journey. Of course she is.

Nothing will stop her now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO. the end of part 1. kinda crazy i got through here in just a couple of days. but, plans, i guess ?
> 
> part 2) haunting shit / house history
> 
> part 3) weird mom and le master (and uncle tommy???)
> 
> part 4) NOLAN !!!!
> 
> yup. v excited to go on!! stay tuned i’m having so much fun with this
> 
> love yall ok bye


	15. ✧ PART TWO ✧

PART TWO  
_Season Two_

**Road trip. Should be fun enough, right?**

**Well. It seems there’s more linked to a haunted hotel and the house than Sunshine might have previously thought.**


	16. Chapter 16

It’s been almost a month and a half since Sunshine last said goodbye.

She’s been doing — well, she’s actually been doing really great. Ever since Creepy Lady blessed the house with sage the ghosts have been.. quiet. Sometimes her little unicorn will move, but she’s grown used to it. Maybe she even likes it a little. It lets her know that there is still a presence in her house, but — but not the _bad_ one, like the spirit that attacked her.

Her nightmares haven’t gone away, no, not completely. But she’s been able to finally talk to her mother about them and — and it’s just good to finally get it off her chest. She’s been able to overcome her fear; the taste of copper doesn’t quite faze her as it once had, and she’s been able to improve on a regular sleep schedule. 

Of course, Sunshine misses the ghosts. Kind of. After that last experience, where she was attacked, she knows she’s terrified. But she loves the thrill. The adrenaline rushing through her limbs and mind and powering her forward. She loves uncovering the mysteries of the house. It’s really — it’s, just, a terrible addiction.

That being said, Sunshine and her mother are deciding to go on a road trip across the Oregon beach, exploring different haunted places and spending more quality time with each other! There will still be that beating fear of the spirits, but at least they have each other, and it’s not like the ghosts are at their house. It’s different. They can’t be followed, and it’s so, so relieving.

That being said, here they are in the car. Sunshine pulls out the camera she hasn’t even looked at in almost two months. “Hey kids!” she greets, smiling widely. “It’s adventure time! WOO!” She’s sitting in the passenger seat of the car, bags stacked up around her and the sun shining down on her face.

“How ‘bout I just help you here,” Kat’s voices comes through, and Sunshine nods eagerly. “So, helloooo~” Her mother squeezes in to the frame with her daughter, and the two grin at the camera. “In case you couldn’t understand what Sunshine just said there —”

“ADVENTURE TIME!”

Kat rolls her eyes as she continues on her tangent of words. “Anyone who thinks she’s an actor would realize she could do that a lot better.”

Sunshine starts laughing as her mother continues. “Adventure time~ We’re going on a road trip.”

“Yep. We are.” She smirks, waving to the bags surrounding the back of the car. “Look at all our stuff.”

“That’s aaaallll Sunshine’s crap.”

“It is _not_ , it’s mostly hers.” She snorts. “It’s all her necessity though. We need all of it.”

“We tell ‘em where we’re going?”

“Yes. Yes!” Sunshine smacks her legs. “You get to know. I mean, I don’t know everything ‘cause she’s keeping secrets from me guys —” She points to her mother, “secrets~ But anyways —”

“Well,” Kat cuts in, “I think you’ve kept a few secrets, princess.”

She cocks a brow and rolls her eyes. “Whatever. She’s, suddenly, cranky. _Anyways_ , we, are going, to, the Organ coaaaast!” Sunshine says the last words in a sing-song voice, then squeals with excitement.

“I’ve never heard anyone sing that.”

“Oh, I can, I sing _everything_ , I’m very excited, all the time.” She tilts her head and smiles. 

“Yes, we are gonna document everything.”

“Yees.”

“And share it with you—”

Sunshine points to the camera. “And you’re gonna love it. Enjoy it.”

“So.” Kat turns the camera on both of them. “And, just because Sunshine doesn’t know _everything_ , I’m taking her to a few surprises. Including some places that may or may not be..”

“Haaaaunnteedd!” Sunshine sings the word again and starts clapping.

“It’s gonna be awesome,” her mother smirks.

“It’s gonna be _great_!”

“And then — wait, are you just gonna post one huge long video?”

She quirks a brow fancily. “Yes~” She pauses. “Give it more on me.”

Kat chuckles as her daughter bathes in the sunlight. “More on Sunshine.”

“Yes.”

“No, you’re not gonna post one long video, are you?”

“No! It’s gonna be increments.” Sunshine smirks. “It’s gonna be like —”

“That’s a big word.” 

“In...criments... yeah.”

“Is that on the SAT test?”

“Yes, I learned it, just to be smart. ANYWAYS. So... it’ll be in small sections and you can watch it. And love it. Enjoy it.”

“And hopefully,” Kat adds, “hopefully we’ll uh — share some interesting haunted locations that you too can go visit in Oregon next time you’re there.”

Sunshine nods. “Yeah. Look it — now you know where I live.” She gasps and dramatically holds her hand to her mouth.

“We don’t _live_ in Oregon.”

“Shocking.”

“We’re going to _visit_ the Oregon coast.” She groans. “It’s a long drive. Stay tuned.”

“Stay excited! YAAAA.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Are we there yet?”

Kat looks over at the camera, sunglasses perched on her nose. “Gah, you’re a whiner. Look, we’re getting closer.” Up ahead, the grass parts along the road, pine trees shadowing the sides of the concrete. “Billboards. About the beach.”

“Swampland,” Sunshine sings. “Happy happy ecosystem.

“And — Tanger Outlets, shopping!”

“Oh, good, I was worried.” She rolls her eyes.

“It’s really too bad we don’t get sponsors for any of this,” Kat notes. “That would be helpful.”

“Yeah, that would.” Sunshine thinks.

“That would be. But we don’t.” Her mother pauses. “ _Yet_. Sponsor us.”

“YAAAA.” She smiles widely at the camera. 

“We’ll do road trips everywhere.” 

“Bye guys!”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Mom’s tired of driving. Whiner whiner whiner whiner.” Sunshine sticks her tongue out.

“Go _on_ , it’s your turn.”

“I can drive now,” she flaunts as she stumbles in to the driver’s seat.

“Here, give me the camera,” Kat laughs snobbishly. “Hehe, now I can film.”

“Weirdo.”

“Yes. Are we there yet?”

“Are we there yet?” Sunshine mocks.

“You’re driving me crazy.”

“You’re driving _me_ crazy.”

Kat looks down. “Ooo, look what else I have. Her _cell phone_.” She smirks. “See who she’s been texting. Oo, that’s really close.” Her mother draws the camera back. “Sorry guys.”

Kat begins checking the phone and her brows crease. “ _No_ one.”

“Yeah.”

“That was boring. Okay.” Kat looks over. “Are we there yet.”

“Stop it.”

“Are we there yet.”

“Stop it.”

“Are we there yet.”

“Stop it.” Sunshine shakes her head at the camera with exasperation. “Oh, I can’t put the gas — I’m not used to driving this car.”

“I’m gonna tell you right now, Sunshine is _veeeery_ short.”

She looks embarrassed. “Yeah, I just move it up and then over.”

“And I’m not that tall.” Kat chuckles.

“It makes like a little — eeeeeeeee.” Sunshine mocks the voice of the seat. “Can you hear — oh you probably can, as you move up, it’s terrible.”

“What does it do?”

“Eeee —” She laughs. 

“Really?” Kat snorts.

“I sound like a llama. Or a goat.”

“A _llama_ , um, okay, wait, I need to take you to the zoo ‘cause you don’t know what any of these animals sound like.”

“Um, I know what a goat sounds like. Just like—” Sunshine makes a _baaaah_ noise. “—like that.”

“Really? I heard a goat once—”

“A pigmy goat.”

“—once peed on your shoe.”

Sunshine bites her lip. “Shut up. That’s _one_ time.” She points her finger up. “One time!”

“Yeah but how many people can say that, seriously—” Kat wheezes, “—seriously Sunshine, how many people can say that a goat has _peed_ —”

“Um hello, other people are on _farms_.”

“Oh. Good point.”

Sunshine looks around to make sure no cars are coming their way.

“You’re a very good driver.”

“I am.”

“There’s no one comin’ now!”

“Ohhhh we’re gonna peel out a little bit there. Woo. Yeah.” Sunshine blows through her teeth. “That was fun.”

“I’m sleepy. I’m gonna take a nap.” Sunshine begins singing and Kat shakes her head. “Do you not realize I’m still filming?”

She laughs loudly, throwing her head back. “Whatever!”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“We switched back to her driving,” Sunshine begins, “and she’s gonna crash us right here. We’re just — we’re gonna dieeee!”

“There’s bugs everywhere!” Kat complains.

“Everywhere,” Sunshine sings. She’s in a very singy mood today.

“I just killed single-handedly multiple bugs.” Her mother curls her fingers.

“Unlike me, who killed _none_.”

Kat wheezes. “Yeah, turns out she killed none.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “Didn’t — I didn’t squish them.”

A pause. “Are we there yet.”

“Aaaa yeah yeah. No, we’re never being there. We’re staying in the car forever and ever. It’s dooooom I tell you.” Sunshine faces the camera back to her. “My stomach kinda hurts. From sitting and leaning over, no, yeah.”

She films the trees whirring by before falling asleep.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“No road trip is complete,” Sunshine says, “without a stop at some fast-food restaurant — here we are at Wendy’s, yes.”

Kat turns her head. “We’d like their fries.”

She nods. “Their fries are delicious.”

“But here’s what, really is interesting.” Her mother takes the camera. “Ready for it.” She turns the screen to the car in front of them, which has a wide red sticker on the back with a smiley face. “Smile!” they both say in unison. “Your mom chose life!” 

Kat smirks. “The things we see on road trips.”

“Ugh.” Sunshine grumbles. “You’ll probably see more later. Bye guys!”

She smiles as she turns the camera off.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically this was a bunch of fluff because you can’t tell me my girls don’t fucking deserve it try me
> 
> but don’t worry haunting things will happen i think. actually i’m not sure i haven’t seen season 2 in years and i’m watching as i’m writing so. hey. maybe we’ll all be surprised


	17. Chapter 17

“Okay, I have a question,” she begins, still sitting in the passenger seat of the car. “Why is, on the license plate, you may or may not want to see it—” Sunshine turns the camera to a gray van in front of them, “it beautiful British Columbia and ours is just Oregon, why is it not, like, y’know, Organic Oregon or.. something.. with an O. Outrageous Oregon. Like why is that.”

Kat looks over. “That’s a very deep thought.”

“I know.” Sunshine nods. “I just — I’ve been pondering it, I don’t know why.” She smiles. 

“If anyone knows,” Kat says.

“Tell us.” She turns the camera back around. “We’re at the oceaaann~! See it past that — large ass truck.”

“We did it. We arrived,” her mother says from beside.

“Kind of a little bouncy ‘cause she’s a terrible driver.”

“Yeah, that’s why.” Kat rolls her eyes. “We’re still not to the hotel, but we are at least to the ocean.”

“Which is _always_ important.” Sunshine tries to look over the houses at the rippling waves of the sea. “Oh look, there it is again — it’s kinda hard to see and ohhh there it goes.” A large tan brick house covers the sloping hills. “Behind that house. A very large _castle-like_ house. What is that, that’s weird.”

“That is weird.”

“I don’t like that house at all, they have weird balconies — bye big truck I didn’t like you, you smell bad.” She sticks her tongue out as the large truck turns away. 

“Ugh. It really did,” Kat snorts.

“Stank. Really. Awful.” Sunshine turns the camera to her then furrows her brow. “The one thing I don’t like about the beach is what people wear here. It’s terrible. It’s like — ‘Ah! It’s freezing cold outside! But let’s look like a skank anyway.’” She gets distracted and smiles when the sand drifts up to the road. The blue water stretches over the horizon. “There it is again guys! I’m so excited. Aaa.”

Kat tilts her head. “Wow, there’s a lot of people here. Everybody decided — they said, ‘Hey, we hear Sunshine’s gonna be at the beach!’”

“I’m... sure that’s why they came.”

“That’s it.”

“Exactly it.”

Kat takes the camera and and smiles. “It’s definitely the beach. Cause look it — TRAFFIC!”

“Yay,” Sunshine says unenthusiastically, gazing at the cars piled behind one another.

Her mother sighs heavily. “I think... we’re almost there.”

Sunshine grunts. “She’s not telling me where we’re staying, so I just keep guessing — I’m deciding.. Lincoln City Inn.” She nods at the large pale brown hotel across the street.

“Yeah, because that _certainty_ looks haunted,” Kat scoffs. “But it does have a nice ocean view if you can see past the Kyllo’s sign.”

“Kylloooo’s — no, you really can’t, but it’s actually a really good restaurant, I’ve heard.”

They both sigh as the traffic continues slowly. “Well,” Sunshine announces. “I will continue guessing. How about D’Sands Motel? D... Sands? I don’t get it.”

“I think it’s supposed to be clever,” Kat explains when she sees Sunshine’s confused expression.

“Oh, D’Sands, aaaaaha, like — oh, no, I still don’t get it.”

Kat laughs. “Good thing you’re preeetttyyy.”

“TUUUUURN,” Sunshine yells at the car in front of them.

“Turn already!” Her mother wheezes. “Ohhhh... my gosh... we’re never gonna get there.”

“It doesn’t really look haunted,” she notes as they draw closer to D’Sands. “Oh, sweet Jesus —”

“Watch your mouth, girl.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“We’re still a little ways there,” Kat sighs. “If you wanna — pause it so they don’t have to see all this.”

“Okay — the Hideaway Motel! That’s it! We’re done! Right there!”

They pass it.

“Never mind.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“She’s gonna tell me? We’re almost there.”

“I think... it’s...”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “She thinks it’s up here.” A sigh. “We’re not even close. She’s gonna be like, ‘Oh, right around this corner!’ NOO.”

“Now I gotta pee,” her mother complains.

“Edge Cliff Motel! That’s where it is, isn’t it? Hhhh, kinda ugly, I hope that’s not where we’re gonna stay. Please say no.”

Kat doesn’t respond and instead looks over the road. “It’s gotta be right here.. We’re close..”

“Don’t worry, it’s not the Edge Cliff Motel, guys,” Sunshine goes on. “We passed it.”

“Not the Ester Lea Motel,” Kat says, looking at the red billboard. “It is the 70th birthday for _Linda_ there..”

“Aaa, Linda! Happy birthday!”

Kat huffs. “Okay, now that we’ve passed five _hundred_ —”

“There’s the ocean!” The day is painted with gray clouds, but the foam along the waves contrasts with the darkness of the sea. “It’s beautiful~”

“Or is it the RV Park??!”

“Ooooh, we’re staying at the RV Park!” Sunshine laughs.

“It’s haunted!”

“Wooo!” She pauses. “Ocean Terrance.. condominiums, nightly rentals —” A gasp, “Oh! We’re gettin’ over in the other lane, that means we’re close!”

“Wait, okay, okay, if this is it — okay, so, I did some research on the internet,” Kat begins, looking excited, “and _supposedly_.. _this_ place... is haunted.”

Sunshine gasps as they slow down near a dark tan hotel, a large front opening with trees scattered around the middle, fish painting the side walks. “Historic Anchor Inn.”

“This is where we’re staying.” Kat smirks.

“Oooo. Big cars and trucks. Awww. It’s so preetttyyy.”

“So this is where we are staying.. check it out!”

“AAAA! Look at it guys. Ooo.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine raises a brow, squeezing in to the frame as her mother holds the camera. “We arrived!” she sings. “Historic Anchor Inn!”

“Let’s check it out!”

They near the front of the hotel, shoes clanking against the gravel pavement below them. Large, thick orange wooden pillars jut out from a wide front patio, round flower pots scattered around the edges, grass filling in the cracks. A silver bike is resting along the wall and there are mannequins posed in the black benches. A sign reads ‘Bikes FREE. Check out at front desk.’

Sunshine is pretty sure she’s on her own with that one, considering how rusty the bike is.

The duo continues walking through the patio, a large ‘WELCOME’ sign pressed against the russet bench, a fall-leaf wreath around the door. Sunshine sits next to the mannequin and then jumps up. “Ahhhh.. she’s really creepy, I don’t like her.”

Kat laughs as they slip inside, checking out the place. It’s spacious but homey; it seems like there are hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls, lamps dotting the furniture and spilling light in to the hotel. Sunshine wants to keep looking around the front entrance, but is happy to go inside to escape the loud buzz of locusts. 

They eventually check in and are given the key to the room. The two make their way down the halls, and Sunshine leads the way up a wide set of stairs. She notes how creepy some of these pictures are — weird, wide-eyed families staring back, or dark landscapes speckled over with clouds. 

Another small white sign reads: ‘Shhh. Please remove shoes.’ Sunshine is pretty sure she doesn’t want to do that, but figures it’s because the wooden floors are so loud and creaky.

“I don’t know if this place is haunted,” Kat begins. “But it definitely has character.”

There’s an open door around the corner and Sunshine gasps. “Is this our room?? No. But, aww.”

When first walking in, there’s a wooden island that sticks out from the wall, chairs seated along the edges. A small kitchen is tucked in the left corner with plates and cups. It looks to be a little communal room. They visit a greenhouse and explore the flowers cluttered around the room. Sunshine likes the feel. Kind of — it’s eclectic? 

Honestly, she loves it. Ugh. If only they could live here!  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Which room are we staying in?”

“Lillian.”

Sunshine turns and shuffles over to the door, clicking the lock — well, trying to click the lock for about two minutes — before Kat does it for her. They enter the room, which has a large black leather chair in the corner, a bedside table and a blue striped bed. There’s a piano in the left corner with many antiques topped above, and a mirror hanging on the wall. 

“This is so cool,” Sunshine breathes as she avoides another one of those creepy paintings. 

(The piano doesn’t work, how sad.) 

“I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to sleep here, this is creepy,” she laughs, looking at a compass enclosed in a circular glass. Kat seems like she’s digging it, though.

To the right of the bed is the bathroom, with a small yet creepy hallway that holds the shower, toilet, and sinks. There’s a window perched aside where she can see the swampland behind the wooden fence. 

“Okay, so supposedly,” Kat begins as Sunshine rolls around the bed, coming out from the bathroom, “I asked the owner for his _most haunted room_.”

Sunshine leans her head back and makes an annoyed face. “Seriously. Okay. Well, we’re not gonna be able to sleep here.”

“So what do you feel? Anything?”

She pauses, leaning back and raising a brow. “No. Not really.”

“Hm. Maybe later.”

  
⠀  
⠀  
So. They continue to explore the haunted hotel and find another communal hang-out area with plump couches and wooden desks; more long, creepy hallways; empty, open rooms; broken clocks spread along the chests; a DVD room with a TV; random mannequin heads; and, last but not least, more pictures.

Creepy. Sunshine isn’t sure how to feel about it.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“So. Mom’s gonna tell me a the story all about the Haunting of this hotel. And, go.”

They’re back in the room, Kat seated in a chair, and she looks up and nods. “Oh. Okay! So —”

“You’re seriously eating ice cream?” Sunshine snorts.

“It’s yummy.” 

“Continue.” Kat holds up the strawberry ice cream and takes a bite from the spoon.

“No, no —” She laughs, “not the _ice cream_.”

“Oh.” Kat wheezes and brushes auburn hair out of her face. “Okay, so, we decided to do a road trip to the Oregon coast — I did a whole bunch of research — and I found this haunted hotel.” Her mother motions her hand around the room. “The Historic Anchor Inn.”

“Yes,” Sunshine adds, waving the camera around. 

“Back to me, focus.” Kat clears her throat. “So, apparently, this hotel is built where a house had been.. where a lady mysteriously died.”

Sunshine raises a brow as Kat nods. “Aaaaaand?”

Her mother laughs then goes blank.

“That’s the whole story?” Sunshine begins giggling. “That’s the crappiest story I’ve ever heard of a haunting. Seriously, like..? I got all excited for that... and then I found five dollars, let’s up the ante a little bit, okay, geez.”

She shakes her head and looks at the camera.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn’t stop laughing at that fucking story oh my god
> 
> anyway.. voices caught soon? 
> 
> stay tuned y’all


	18. Chapter 18

They’re still in the room. Kat is sitting in the large, black leather chair, sun pooling across her blanketed lap. Sunshine picks up the camera and angles it forward. “So, mother.” Kat looks up from her book. “Do you think it’s really haunted.”

“What’s haunted.”

“The... hotel.” She uses that tone of voice, basically screaming ‘obviously!’ in her mother’s face.

Kat coughs out a laugh. “The hotel. You didn’t like my story.” She pouts and places the book on the table beside her.

“Well it’s ‘cause it’s bad,” Sunshine breathes.

Her mother shakes her head and waves her hands around. “So now I’m just supposed to go with that?”

“Yeah.”

Kat lifts her legs up, sighing. “I don’t know. I don’t — here, I’ll come sit with you.”

“Hmmm.”

“What do you think?” She sits by her daughter on the bed.

“Well, I don’t know..”

“It’s definitely creepy enough.”

“Mm, and it squeaks.”

They sit against the headrest of the bed, camera facing the both of them. “It’s definitely weird and... eclectic?”

Sunshine shows her teeth in a neutral sort of grin. “Eclectic.”

“But I don’t know that I have any of the — here my arms are longer than yours.” Her mother holds the camera and sighs. “I don’t, have any of the, like, feelings.. that you always did?”

“Mhm..”

“With the house? So, I think, maybe you’re a better judge of.. if it’s — if there’s anything — if there’s a ghost or anything.”

“Well..” Sunshine scratches her nose. “I don’t know. Well, like, if we had the Ouija board, we could use it, except people would kill me.” She huffs. “They were like, ‘No don’t use it..! Ahhh it’s so bad!’”

“The people got _really_ intense — you guys got _reeaaally_ intense.” Kat shakes her head at the camera.

“Defensive, and..” Sunshine sighs. “Freakin’ out.”

“We didn’t even use it and people were freakin’ out.”

“I know, we just bought it, kind of as a.. joke sort of, because people were like, ‘Don’t use it!’, so we bought it and they said it again! So..”

“But,” Kat points out, “that might tell us something.”

“Hey, though! But like, you know like, how on haunted shows they ask _questions_? To the ghosts? We could do that.”

Her mother’s eyes light up. “Like — well, they usually do that in the middle of the night though. Like, dead hour.”

Sunshine shrugs. “Yeah, we could do it now.” She looks around and toward the window as the sun begins to set, orange and pink streaks dappling the ground. “Maybe, something, might happen.”

Kat furrows her brows. “If any room in this place is haunted, it’s gonnnna beee this one. Because it’s definitely — like, the closet doesn’t even shut. How creepy is that?”

“And it creaks open if you try to close it.”

“And all these creepy pictures.” Kat turns the camera to the one beside them, of a little girl holding a doll. She then turns the screen back to them. “Would you wanna do that?”

“Yes!”

“We gotta give you somethin’ to watch!” Sunshine sits up, scooting toward the edge of the bed while looking out over the room. “Okay.”

Sunshine sighs, eyes flickering around. “Are there any ghosts... here?”

A drawn silence.

“Ask if anyone wants to talk to us,” Kat whispers.

“Do you.. ghosts.. want to talk to me?”

More staticy silence and Sunshine scrunches up her face. “I don’t think it’s working,” she murmurs.

“Well,” her mother points out, “it’s still daylight.”

“True. Maybe we could wait ‘till it’s dark..”

“On the ghost shows they always wait ‘till night time.”

She shrugs. “Mhm. Dead hour, or just like, midnight or something.”

“Is — is that what they call it?”

“Dead time.”

“Dead time?”

“Mhm.”

“Well, we could try it. I might be sleepy though.”

“Well.” Sunshine grunts. “I’ll just scream to wake you up.”

“Got it.”

She smirks. “Blah.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Do you hear that?”

There’s a buzzing throughout the room. Sunshine grabs a hold of her camera in the darkness. She turns on a light and looks around, breathing heavily. 

“It’s coming from the bathroom,” she whispers, heart beating out of her chest. It feels like she’s back at home, back to hearing the claws scratching her door, back to — back to the spirit that attacked her. Sunshine can almost feel the bruises lining her neck.

But it’s fine. She’s fine. They’re in a completely different place. Even if something _does_ happen, it wouldn’t be at home. It wouldn’t follow them back.

She hesitates, sitting up slowly. “There’s noises outside,” she continues. “But, people might still be awake.” She doesn’t forget about the creaky floorboards, then hums. “It can’t be that late. Except they don’t believe in _clocks_ here.”

Sunshine flinches when the bathroom door jolts, and a deep moaning sound comes from within. She looks over to her mother and sighs. “She can sleep through anything.” Ignoring her shaking hands, Sunshine stands, sweeping her body toward the bathroom. “I really hate the dark.”

The dark always brings bad, bad things.

She steps inside, clicking on the light and creeping down the small, creepy hallway that leads to the toilet. The buzzing becomes increasingly louder, almost like an echo, as Sunshine looks around the bathroom. She begins to tremble as she looks down to the running faucet.

Once she turns the handle, everything goes quiet.

“It — it’s just the sink,” she tells herself, walking out and back to the main room. She looks to the piano and — and just _feels_ something. She doesn’t know how to explain it. She _can’t_ explain it.

“Is anybody there?” Sunshine calls out, biting her bottom lip, green eyes wide.

No response. Of course.

She creeps toward the door and hears clanking outside. “It — it just sounds like people are awake. It was nothing.”

Sunshine cuts the camera and doesn’t fall back asleep.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine’s reviewing the footage from the night before. She thinks she hears a voice, but isn’t really sure. So, she cuts those pieces out and loops them; then, she raises the volume on each clip and listens.

What comes next is — is really, truly, terrifying.

The first clip is from her waking up. _“My name is Anna.”_ It’s what she hears, crystal clear, and it burns her ears like acid. A soft child’s voice, young and girly. How did she not hear it then?

Clip #2: She’s standing at the bathroom mirror before turning to walk out. _“They are watching you.”_ Same voice, same pitch, same degree of horrifying.

Sunshine remembers back to the photo she was sent in the mail, of the father and daughter with bags over their heads. The same words were written on a piece of paper accompanying the photo.

If this is really what’s being said, she’s even more terrified.

Clip #3: She’s asking if anyone is there, the bathroom dark behind her. _“Don’t trust her.”_ The girl — Anna? — is speaking again. Sunshine isn’t sure who ‘her’ is, but is determined to find out.

(Creepy Lady?)

Clip #4: Sunshine walks back to her bed after figuring that people are still awake down the hall, which is where the voices and clattering is coming from. 

This — this is the one that scares her the most. She doesn’t expect Anna to be so dark. And she doesn’t expect the words to come so soon.

_“You will die.”_

She throws up.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Today, Sunshine and her mother are visiting a few haunted places. A lighthouse and more surprise are to come. Of course, Kat won’t tell her anything. Oh well. She’s kind of excited for the unknown.

(Should she tell her about the EVPs she found?)

No. Better not.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
First, they visit a large, good-smelling library with pumping music above their heads.

Kat asks if she likes Twilight. Sunshine really doesn’t.

Oh. ‘How To Survive Your Freshman Year’ would have been helpful in 2009.

She also realizes she has a lot of these books, but greatly enjoys the paranormal section of the library. ‘Idiot’s Guide To Ghosts and Hauntings.’ Maybe that’s what they need.

Guess they don’t need anything from here. There aren’t any ghosts at home anymore. No need to even think about it.

She’s still wondering what Anna’s warnings mean.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Next, Sunshine is driving to Newport with her mother as the ‘tour guide.’ The ocean is beautiful, even if it’s sprinkling and the clouds are fluttering in the sky. She doesn’t really see the ocean that often. Maybe they’ll see a whale.

Unlikely.

They eventually arrive to the docks and are watching the sea lions. Sunshine names them Bob, Frank, Mikey, Joe, and Nick. She really enjoys this. It’s fun. It’s relieving.

No ghosts can be really, really awesome.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some creepy stuff and tbh that video of the evps freaked me out ngl
> 
> anyway yeah i’m so excited for season 3 it’s not even funny get ready for lots of updates


	19. Chapter 19

Sunshine hates furries.

Basically, anything in costumes.

Mascots count.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
They’re standing over the boardwalk as Kat shares Sunshine’s forgotten childhood memories with her.

Sunshine loves sea food, so they’re going to eat at Local Ocean Seafoods. Kat also teases her daughter while she’s choking on her food.

That’s nice.

(Why’s she laughing so hard again?)

Oh, right. That furry thing is still freaking her out.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine and her mother are standing in the midst of a clutter of trees, overlooking the sandy beach and the ocean. Behind them, a lighthouse towers over the trees. Which is, supposedly, haunted.

Not a secret place, but still creepy enough.

Once they near the building, they realize the lighthouse is actually pretty tiny. They have to walk through the front of an old house with too much space and too little furniture. There’s a doll in a crib to the side and Sunshine gets out of there as quickly as possible.

They slip in and out of a few different rooms, scanning over all the information and making their way farther and farther up. They can see the ocean out of the windows and it’s honestly, just, wonderful.

And they haven’t even been to the actual lighthouse!

The duo shuffles up the long, winding stairs while tiny rooms pass by their sides. They read up a little on the people that have died here, then decide to go to the basement. A man dressed in a tan uniform stands before several books and trinkets about the lighthouse, nodding at those that pass by. 

“A long time ago,” the man begins, shifting the green cap on his head, “way back when there was no electricity or TV or video games or anything like that, this lighthouse was abandoned and.. there was no lighthouse anymore. Over the years it kinda got older and older and fell in to ruin. It looked terrible — falling apart.”

He leans back. “Way back then, there was a strange ship that came in to town one day, in the harbor down here. Out of the ship came two people — the very handsome captain of the ship, and his teenage daughter. The father talked to some of the local people and said that Muriel needed to stay here because he had to take his ship down to coast. He set his daughter up in a boarding house — or, otherwise known as a hotel of sorts — and said he’d be back very soon.”

The man sighs and shakes his head. “Well, that soon turned in to a week, two weeks, and then a couple of months. Muriel had become acquainted with some of the local folks in town, and they decided that they’d have a picnic and come up to the lighthouse. They got the key because it was, of course, all locked up, and they walked around the lighthouse, having their picnic, and decided to go in to check things out.”

He tilts his head. “They went in the lighthouse, which was really kinda spooky; there were cobwebs all over the place and no one had been in there for years and years. So they’re walking around and exploring and they find this strange passageway up the top. They looked down and thought it went all the way down to the ocean. Kinda strange, maybe pirates or something. Who knows? 

They decided they’d leave and all left, and Muriel said she — she forgot her hankerchief, which was kind of an heirloom, very special because her father had given it to her. She ran up and, and one of the boys she was kind of attracted to offered to accompany her, but she said, ‘Oh, no, it’ll just be a minute,’ and she ran on up there and, meanwhile, the group had gone down to their buggy. Then, they heard these — these terrible screams, ‘Help me! Help me!’ They rushed up there and loe and behold, the door was locked.

They finally managed to jimmy it, got in, and those steps that you walked up — they found blood drops all down the stairs. And at the top, they found a bloody hankerchief. They reported it later on to the local officials, and they searched and searched, couldn’t find Muriel. But you know what? It’s said that at night — when it’s dark and kind of rainy, almost like today — some people say they can see Muriel, walking around, trying to get out.”

The story shakes Sunshine, but then she realizes she’s in a gift shop. The story can’t be real. Obviously. That’s dumb. Just a ploy for money.

The story ends and she and her mother go back upstairs to where the rooms are. Kat is excited and turns the camera to Sunshine. “Okay, so now, for the last, like, five minutes there’s been tons of people up here. Right now there’s like nobody.. so..” She looks at her daughter, who’s standing still, face serious and green eyes flicking around the bedroom. “Do you feel anything?”

Sunshine nods and squints her eyes, almost like she’s in pain. “It does feel a little different when everybody leaves, huh..” Kat notes. “Not bad though, huh?”

“No. Just different.”

“Very different.”

“You don’t feel alone.”

“Yeah..! Well, now of course there’s people downstairs, but..” Her mother sighs. “Very odd.”

They keep walking around, looking in glass containers, examining the black and white pictures of the landscape and former homeowners. “Look at the old people who lived here. I love it.”

Sunshine turns around to make a witty comment to her mother, then realizes she’s gone. “Mom?” She looks confused as the camera faces her. “Mom left. Okay..” Sunshine almost looks a little annoyed. “I’ll go find her.”

She exits the house, to where she finds Kat standing farther along the brick pavement, quickly leaving the lighthouse. “Mom. Mom!” she calls, running after her.

“We gotta go,” her mother says, wasting no time as she rushes to the car.

“Why?” Sunshine asks, confused. Kat begins running. “Mom. Mom! Could you quit that?”

The sprinkles of rain pelt down on Sunshine’s face as she jogs after her mother. This is really freaking her out. “Just come on!” Kat says impatiently.

“Okay, it’s not... safe to run down brick!” Sunshine breathes out, brows creasing. “Mom!”

“I think I saw your dad!” she says in a hushed tone, turning around and staring at her daughter.

“What?” Sunshine stands still, shock numbing her mind. Kat continues sprinting so she runs afternoon her mother. “Mom!”

They reach the car and Sunshine quickly slips in to the passenger seat. “Mom, I want to talk about it.”

“Talk about what?” Kat’s voice is clipped.

“Um, dad? Being, there?” She reaches for the seatbelt as the engine rumbles. “And, in — in there? Mom!”

“I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Well, I do!”

“I don’t wanna — I especially don’t wanna talk about it on camera!” Kat glares at the screen.

Sunshine groans.  
⠀   
⠀   
⠀   
So, they’re back at the haunted hotel. Sunshine is sitting on the bed, back to the wall. She sighs and scratches her head, looking at the camera. “Mom just stepped out of the room for a second to go get DVDs so we can watch a movie. So I’m gonna take this... thirty seconds or something.. to go ahead and tell you about my dad — bring you up to speed on as much as I know, which isn’t much.”

Sunshine sighs and frowns. “They broke up when I was really young, and Mom never really told me why or, or how it happened, so she doesn’t really talk about. I’ve kind of just learned to deal with that. We don’t talk about it and.. it’s just kind of something that is, there. It’s like the big white elephant in the room. But. Y’know. I get used to it.”

She turns the camera off before her mother walks back in.  
⠀   
⠀   
⠀   
“Mom, have you ever noticed how that picture right there looks like a black-eyed kid?”

Kat sighs in the black leather chair and looks up at the photo hanging beside her. 

“Seriously though!” Sunshine continues, examining the painted picture of the little girl. She has dark eyes and is wearing a white dress with black liner.

“Okay, it kind of does,” her mother agrees, breathing out.

“It does!”

Kat laughs. “You are obsessed with that.”

“I am not..!”

“Have you ever — ever told everybody about it?” Kat shifts in her chair and stares at her daughter. “All your Sunshine people?”

“So, do you guys know what black-eyed kids are?” she asks the camera, sitting back on the bed. 

“I guess you haven’t,” her mother snorts. “Here, let me hold — I’ll hold it, you tell them.”

“Oh.” Sunshine grunts and lets Kat take control of the screen. “Okay, so, black-eyed kids. You’re gonna learn about it, right now. It’s like my favorite.. new, paranormal-ly thing.”

“Is it new though?”

“Well it’s not — it’s new to _me_.” She shrugs. “But, it’s about these people — witnesses, let’s say — who have experienced this phenomenon where... these kids knock on their door, and ask them..”

“Like for help, right?”

“For help, kind of, yeah. And then, they — the kids, according to the witnesses — appear to be much more.. I guess, mature?” She waves her arms. “Than, your normal kids for that age. And very demanding? Like, if they don’t get it, they get _really_ upset.”

“They like ask to come in or something.”

“Yeah, they’ll be like, ‘Can I come in,’ and it’s like, really —”

“They’re insistent.”

“Why they’re called black-eyed kids is because they have no..” Sunshine motions toward her eyes. “Their eyes — their eyes are like, completely black. They have no iris or anything.”

“It’s so weird.. so it’s not ‘cause they like the black-eyes peas?”

“No.” She smirks. “So, yeah, and the witnesses reported feeling things of like danger, being afraid, not wanting to let the kids in — and there’s even cases of people that — the person that opened the door has gone missing. Like, later, or had been dead.” Sunshine makes a face. “Been dead. Murdered.”

“Been dead. I been _dead_.” Her mother talks all gangster-like.

“So, uh, yeah, I think it’s really cool and I’m kind of friggin fascinated with it right now.”

“What if you saw a black-eyed kid?”

She thinks. “I’d probably ask them some questions.”

“Are they ghosts, or demons, or..?”

“They’re...”

Kat turns before she can answer and shows the painting again. “That is what it looks like.”

“It looks like a black-eyed kid!”

“That’s pretty much Children of the Corn right there.”

“Aaaaah,” Sunshine says in a mock scream. 

“Look at all the stuff that we learned.”

“I know.”

“Sunshine is not a black-eyed kid.”  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we got like 2 more chapters of part 2 yeet


	20. Chapter 20

“Again?!”

The screen is pitch-black before Sunshine clicks on the lamp, looking over on the right side of the bed. “Mom!”

“No! What....?!” Her mother groans and rubs her eyes, clearly aggravated. “Ow..!”

“Mom, shhh, do you hear that?”

“What?”

“It’s the sink!” 

In the background, there’s the same buzzing of water streaming inside of the bathroom. It’s exactly like it was just a couple of nights ago.

Sunshine wonders if this is another warning from Anna.

“This happened the other night,” she continues, sitting up from the bed, flicking the covers from her legs. 

Her mother looks confused. “We left the sink running?”

“Why would we leave the sink running?”

Kat blinks. “Is this what you meant about the other night?”

Oh, yeah. She still hasn’t told her mother about the voices she caught.

“Yes! Go turn it off.”

Kat grunts, slipping out of bed and walking in to the bathroom. She turns the light on and flinches back to make sure no one is there. Of course, there isn’t.

There’s a drawn moment of silence as her mother turns the sink off and retreats back in to the room. “That’s really creepy,” she mutters.

“I know,” Sunshine agrees, sighing. 

“Shh.” Her mother stands still and looks around the room. 

Sunshine hears nothing, so decides to stand up with her mother. “It’s only 8:30. We really need to stop being wusses and going to bed so damn early.”

Kat ignores her daughter and shuffles to the door, pressing her ear against the wood. Sunshine narrows her eyes and taps her fingers along her pajamas.

“Okay, they’re just watchin’ TV.” She raises her brow in question to her mother’s statement but receives no answer.

“Did you talk in the room last night?” Kat continues as she sits on the bed.

“Yeah, but nothing happened..”

“Do you wanna try again?”

“Yeah.” Sunshine looks a little scared and uncertain.

“What do you want to ask?”

A pause. “Is anybody there?”

Might as well go with the basics.

“Ask something else,” Kat advises. “I don’t think that’s the right kind of thing to ask.”

Sunshine glares at her mother then turns back to the room. “Do you have something to say to us?”

Silence.

“Give us a sign?”

A candle on the dresser fizzles, and a fire sparks to light, flaring the room with yellow. Both women gasp loudly, breaths becoming ragged and hitched.

“Okay, that’s a sign,” Kat says, shaking.

Sunshine stares at the candle. “What do we do?”

Kat looks over at her daughter. “You’re asking me? You’re the one with the power.” That creepy black-eyed kid painting in the back looks even more horrifying now.

“Yeah, well I don’t just wanna walk over there and blow it out!” God, she’s scared. She’s so, so scared. The candle flickers and splutters as if it’s being lit again and again.

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Me either..” Sunshine whispers.

“Okay.. we asked for a sign. Now what?”

Sunshine stands and nears the candle slowly. She lifts her body up and tries to blow it out. “This is really weird.”

Kat begins breathing louder, turning the camera on herself. “So apparently it doesn’t matter where we are. I think it’s just her. We obviously need to... find out more.”

Maybe they do.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She’s reviewing the footage from last night, just like before, and catches more voices, just like before. This seems to be recurring.

Clip #1: Her mother sits up and asks if they left the sink running. The same little girl voice speaks. “My name is Anna.” Apparently she likes introducing herself.

Clip #2: Kat walks out of the bathroom after turning the sink on. “Don’t trust her.” THE EXACT SAME WORDS. What is going on?! Who is this ‘her’? Sunshine is so, so confused.

Clip #3: Her mother walks by Sunshine. Anna speaks in the background. “I’m sorry.” 

Clip #4: Before the candle flickers to life. “I can’t help you.” This one greatly unnerves Sunshine.

Clip #5: Sunshine is looking around the room. “Don’t trust her.” _Again_. Who is this _her_?

Clip #6: Right after fire laps at the candle, Sunshine and her mother gasp. “She is not well.”

Clip #7: Sunshine moves to blow out the candle, staring at the flames waving back and forth. “You will die.” She — she doesn’t know how to feel about this one. The same warning as the other night, and equally as scary.

What is Anna telling her?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
So!

The surprise. It’s another haunted location. A large wooden and stone house slightly under construction. How great.

Sunshine really can’t get her mind off of the EVPs recorded last night. _Again_. At least she doesn’t throw up. Or — hmm. It kind of looks like a church.

They get a tour guide from a man named Kip, who takes them around the building and runs down a little information and backstory. When they first enter, the construction rooms are stuffy and thick with dirt. Sunshine can hardly breathe, so is happy to move on as quickly as possible.

Sunshine does like some of these old, large rooms with high ceilings and wide walls. Her favorite is the one with the stained glass window she and the chandeliers hanging down — even if it’s a little cluttered.

The upstair rooms feel less ancient and give off more of a 1930’s vibe. The attic is open and light with holes in the wooden slotted walls. They look through the dents and can see the rippling ocean above the cars and the road.

Kip gives them a sad history as they descend in to the attic about a man who couldn’t afford to cremate bodies, so instead stacked the dead on wooden pillars and left them to rot. Sunshine is pretty grossed out, but hey, it gets her mind off of Anna’s warnings. That’s good enough.

The tour eventually concludes. Sunshine and her mother happily leave, jumping in the car to get away from that place with the horrible backstory. Death, death, and more death.

“So! What’d you think, what’d you think?”

Sunshine is smiling with a disturbed look. “Let’s go home.”

“Aww, let’s go home, what do you mean?”

“Ohh, that was so _creepy_.” She leans her head back.

“It was _awesome_.”

“It was really cool though.” Sunshine sighs. “I think my least favorite part was the stain — that came back?”

Kat purses her lips. “Ew, the stain. Okay, but, what if I ask Kip if we can come back at night by ourselves?”

“No,” is her immediate answer.

“No?”

“No. I’m afraid of the dark.” She laughs.

“We could have one of those lights on your head.”

Sunshine shakes her head, acting grossed out. “I don’t wanna talk about this.”

Kat snorts. “Did you feel anything? Or just creeped out?”

“Just creeped out. Now I’m colldd.”

“So, basically, just creepy.”

“Yeah. _Really_ creepy.”

“Maybe we should make t-shirts that say.. ‘I Survived’—”

“The Mortuary?” Sunshine giggles. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t lay down on the — table.”

Sunshine raises her brows. “No! It was cold.”

“Cold.”

“It was cold.”

“Kip rocked it. Thumbs up Kip.”

Sunshine winks at the camera. “Go Kip!”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The trip is wrapping up. Sunshine’s really enjoyed it and she — well, she’s had a lot of fun. She’s enjoyed this fun time with her mother and just hanging out, visiting some haunted places..

Of course, Sunshine doesn’t love the fact that she was given warnings by a ghost girl named Anna and that her dad might have been in the lighthouse.

And as the two drive home, singing along to the radio and looking over the landscape, Sunshine can’t get those words out of her mind. They eat and eat away until she feels numb. She’s not even scared anymore. Just — just apprehensive.

_“Don’t trust her.”_

Sunshine is going to figure it out if it’s the last thing she does.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so that ends part 2!!! this one was shorter because the season was shorter but i did enjoy writing it AND i’m just... so excited for season 3 ok AHHHH
> 
> ughhhh le master and uncle tommy are coming soon and then nolan is season 4 and yayyyayayay so many things to look forward to
> 
> anyway yeah hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more my loves~


	21. ✧ PART THREE ✧

_PART THREE _  
Season Three__

__**The warnings heeded by ghost girl Anna aren’t going away any time soon. In fact, it seems like they’re coming faster than expected.** _ _

__**What is going on with mom?** _ _


	22. Chapter 22

So.

It’s been two and a half months since Sunshine and her mother returned back home from the Oregon coast trip.

It’s been two and a half months since Anna warned her of bad things to come.

It’s been two and a half months with no ghost activity, save for the unicorn moving every now and then.

And it’s been two and a half months since Creepy Lady has come back around.

Oh. Also, Sunshine has bangs now.

She’s thinking back on the black and white picture of the father and daughter. The one where they have the bags over their heads, and ‘They are watching you’ is written on the back? Yeah, that one.

The one that burned.

It’s clearly her ghosts, as everyone knows. And it’s very, very disturbing. She’s terrified. Granted, she hasn’t had nightmares in at least three months, but now, just _thinking_ about the spirits — it stirs her up. She’s not sure how to feel, exactly.

Sunshine just wants to figure out who those people in the picture are, what they want, why they’re haunting her, and why they won’t leave. 

It’s another mystery to solve, and one Sunshine isn’t sure where to start with.  
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⠀  
⠀  
She’s fairly certain — pretty much darn sure — that the ghosts are back. She’s been hearing voices around the house, and when she’s downstairs, little scuttles along the wall will jolt her away from her homework.

Sunshine doesn’t want to tell her mom; not yet. She knows Kat will freak out and, well, she doesn’t want to go down that road again. Of course, she’ll have to tell her mom. But she just, she doesn’t want to be scared and afraid anymore. It sucks. It really does.

Why can’t her life just be normal?  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
She’s leaving Barnes & Noble, feet clanking against the sidewalk and brows furrowed with concern. “So I just left the bookstore,” she begins, looking at the flashing red light, “and I have this weird feeling. Like I’m being followed. I don’t know.”

Sunshine makes her way to the car and slips in to the driver’s seat, heart flickering in her chest. “It’s a weird feeling. It’s different than normal. Like — like someone’s watching me. It’s not like the ghosts, though. I don’t know. It’s weird.”

She breathes through her teeth and scans the parking lot, ignoring her trembling hands. She doesn’t see anyone, and there’s no evidence to show that someone is even following her.

Whatever. She’s leaving.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“Alright,” she begins, sitting across the wall in the living room. “So I found a local guy who specializes in occult history and paranormal stuff..? So — I can’t remember his name, hold on..” Sunshine presses her lips together and sighs. “I think I have it written down somewhere. So, let me go find it, it’s upstairs.”

She pads toward the doorway but freezes in the kitchen, forehead creasing. “It’s really cold in here.” Sunshine looks around before shrugging. “Weird..”

As she walks up the steps, a gasp wrenches out of her throat when the door at the foot of the stairs slams shut. Sunshine looks at the camera, a knowing look spread all over her face, and shuffles back down to open the door.

Sunshine waves the camera around the bottom floor, shaking her head. “Hello?” 

No answer, of course, she’s an idiot.

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” she murmurs, finding her way back up the stairs. She begins to walk to her room before the door slams _again_.

Sunshine turns around, not startled this time; in fact, she looks more annoyed than anything. 

“They’re back.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
“I feel like somebody’s... watching me.” Sunshine holds her glasses between her fingers, narrowing her eyes and looking around. She’s downstairs, sitting on the couch, and — and she just feels something. Something wrong.

“There’s like a —” She turns her head from side to side. “I have a feeling. I don’t know.” Sunshine grips the camera protectively, standing up slowly. “Hello?” She takes a moment to scan back over the living room. “Is anybody there?” She tries to make her voice firm and determined, but is pretty sure a word cracks there.

The buzzing in her head is really starting to aggravate Sunshine. “Do you have something you want to say to me?” she accuses.

 _Anna?_ Sunshine grunts. No. It can’t be Anna. They left her back at the haunted hotel. Spirits can’t follow people.

“Can you give me a sign?” It’s the least these fucking spirits can do, after all she’s been through.

In the kitchen, something splinters and breaks and it burns Sunshine’s ears. She breathes in, head raising, hands curling around the camera. She nears the counter, poking her head inside. On the ground, strewn across the red mat, is a wooden spoon.

It freaks her out, but it’s — it’s not terrible. Not the worst that has happened.

It’s only when Sunshine goes back to review the footage that she sees a dark, transparent shadow standing right in front of her.

 _That’s_ what really makes her skin crawl.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Since the ghosts are back, Sunshine wants to perform a smudging ceremony. Her mother doesn’t have to know yet, especially if the sage drives the spirits away.

Maybe she can kill two birds with one stone.

Sunshine walks around the house, the herb in one hand and a paper of the words she must speak in the other. She’s a little more enthusiastic today; if this works, then everything can go back to normal. 

A clatter makes Sunshine jump and she turns. “Oh, what is that _smell_? Are you smoking pot?”

She clasps her teeth together, looking a little worried at the sound of her mother’s voice. “I’ll explain..”

Kat looks at her daughter, at the sage, and growls something under her breath. Sunshine seats her mother on the couch and sets the camera up on the table, joining her mother. 

“Yes, please, explain.”

“Okay, so..”

“So, you’re smokin’ pot, huh?”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. 

“ _Please_ tell me it’s pot.” Kat holds her hands together like she’s praying.

Sunshine sighs. “The ghosts are back..”

“What do you _mean_ the ghosts are back?”

“They’re back.”

“From where, did they take a vacation?” Her mother looks unamused. “Did they go on the road trip with us? What.”

“I have no idea. They’re back, though.” She sort of shrugs, trying to play it off.

“How do you know?” Kat genuinely looks interested, and maybe even a little concerned. “What’s goin’ on?”

“I hear voices and stuff.”

“And _stuff_?”

“I feel watched. But it’s okay.”

“You _are_ watched.” Kat gestures toward the camera. “You’ve got a stupid YouTube channel.”

“Okay, well — that’s different.” Sunshine pulls cat hair off of her jeans.

Her mother sighs. “Alright, so, so were you trying to do — what was your plan? What were you doing?”

“I don’t know.” She looks at Kat. “Doing the saging thing that we did with the lady. You walked in on us that time too?”

“When do you — like, since when do you not tell me stuff? Why, were you thinking you could just take care of this on your own, without talking to me?” Kat raises her hands and seems upset.

Sunshine’s eyes widen and she shrugs.

“Mom here,” Kat continues, pointing to herself.

“Basically, yeah.”

“Awesome. Alright, well, do we think that the saging is gonna work, or do we wanna — I don’t know, I feel like we need, we need some help, we need to..” She shakes her head and thinks.

“I would call in a, paranormal person.”

“What’s a paranormal person?”

“The..” Sunshine plays with her braided hair. 

“Like the TV show?”

“No.” She makes a face.

“Could we get in that cute kid form Paranormal State?”

Sunshine smirks. “No, he’s not that cute.”

“I just don’t think we know enough.” Kat frowns.

“Yeah, maybe we should do more research.”

“I don’t know, I — I think maybe a medium could be a good idea.”

Sunshine raises her brows. “Isn’t that just a psychic?”

“No, it’s more—” Her mother sighs, “like people, I think the difference is that they can kind of talk to ghosts, so, I mean, obviously — I think to some extent _you_ can talk to ghosts, but they don’t seem to be talking back in a way that is helping us to figure this out. They just are... _bothering_ you, They’re not really... helping us.”

“Mhm...” She’s thinking.

“So... I think maybe that might be a good option.”

Sunshine looks up at Kat. “Let’s do it.”

Her mother snorts. “That was it, huh?”

“Yeah.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine is doing some research on local paranormal experts to help her out, and manages to find the name of a woman — Bailey Poe — that she wants to call.

She dials the number, holds the phone up, and puts it on speaker for the camera. It rings for a moment and Sunshine hangs her head back, waiting.

“Hello?” She turns her head when a clear male’s voice comes through, grating across the speakers.

“Hi! Is... Bailey Poe there?”

“Yeah, this is him.”

Sunshine smiles widely, trying to cover a giggle. “Oh, you’re a guy?”

“Yeah. Yup.”

She nods slowly. “Okay, um, anyways, so I heard you’re the one to contact about paranormal stuff?”

A pause. “Yeah I’m familiar with quite a bit, what do you need to know?”

“Well, I have this — I’m like, being haunted — but I had this photo mailed to me and it was put in my fireplace and stuff so it’s _burned_ now—” She says this all very casually, “but.. yeah.”

“Okay, so... how can I help you?”

“I don’t know, I thought we could meet and you could... look at the photo and stuff and.. talk a little about it.” There’s silence for a moment. Sunshine draws her head forward as if to motion him to talk with annoyance.

“This isn’t a joke is it?”

“No, it’s not a joke..” Sunshine squints her eyes and laughs. 

“Okay. Yeah, you can come over.”

She makes a face. “Like, to your house?”

“Yeah, yeah, you can come over pretty much any time, I’m, like — whatever.”

She almost scoffs. “I’m not coming to your house!”

“Why not?”

“Cause that’s _weird_ , I’m a girl, you’re apparently a dude..?” She shakes her head. Isn’t this obvious? 

“I thought you needed my help.”

“How about we meet somewhere _public_.”

A sigh. “Uhh, okay, that’s fine, we can do that. How about the park, like, Thomson Park, do you know where that is?”

“Yeah, I know where that is.” Sunshine begins to nod. 

“Okay, yeah, we can meet there, that’s fine — uh, hey, I have another call coming in, I’ll give you a call back, okay?”

“Um, okay.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah.” Sunshine hangs up and looks confused, staring at the camera. “Creeper, much? Seriously. Weird.”  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT’S LE MASTER I’M SO HAPPY


	23. Chapter 23

“Hey guys, what’s goin’ on.” She walks down the upstairs hall then pauses. “I forgot what I was doing this video about.”

Sunshine looks confused, then recognition flickers in her eyes. “The medium. So, I found a local medium, who.. I think will be awesome and I have his number.” She tramples down the stairs, breathing out. “But I’m gonna talk to mom about it right now. So, yeah.”

She walks in to the living room, looking around and then halting in her tracks. Her mother is sitting on the couch, hands outstretched on the Ouija board planchette, face blank but serious.

“What are you doing?” Sunshine’s voice is stern and harsh as she marches up to Kat, green eyes narrowed.

Kat looks up, curling her fingers up. “What?”

“Mom!”

She sighs. “I — I just wanna try it. It seems — I don’t know.” Her mother pushes the board away and crosses her arms. “It was kind of calling to me.”

“Mom, that’s like, BS.”

Kat rolls her eyes. Who’s the mom here, again? Sunshine grunts and positions her camera, sitting down next to her mother.

“I can see that the red light is on, why are you filming? Anything here?”

Sunshine looks dumbfounded then pats her mother’s leg. “I knew you had to be smart to do what you do.” She sticks her tongue out.

“What? Why are we taping?”

“Because! Me and everyone else deserve an explanation.” Duh?

“I, can talk to you about it, I don’t have to tell.. your people..”

“They already saw it, so just, go ahead and explain it.”

Kat sits back and sighs as Sunshine makes a face. “What, what do you wanna know?”

She points to the table. “Why the heck are you using a Ouija board?!”

“Why — we have it, why — if we can talk to the ghosts, if this is... _real_ , which it’s probably not, it’s a _game_ , you bought it at a toy store — why shouldn’t we use it?” Kat shrugs. “If it will actually let us talk to the ghosts, find out why they’re here, find out, why — what do they want? Then why wouldn’t we?”

“Because everyone on YouTube says _not_ to use it!” Sunshine uses that ‘obviously’ tone of voice.

“Ohhh, if people on YouTube say —”

“Okay, I _read_ —”

“They _also_ say all kinds of things about _you_.” Her mother inclines her head forward.

“I’m aware.” Sunshine rolls her eyes. “They _also_ say that it’s just not good, to use a Ouija board!”

“Then why do we have it?”

“Because I was gonna use it and now I’m not, and I just decided, no.”

“I don’t — understand, why we can’t try it. Let’s try it together! Let’s—”

“ _No_.”

Kat groans.

“We will agree to disagree.” Sunshine waves her hands.

“Okay, well, I’m the mom —”

“End of conversation.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine feels like she’s being followed again. She just pulled back up to the driveway and — and just, she has this feeling. Like she’s being watched again. It greatly unnerves her.

Maybe it’s a creepy YouTube stalker or something. She’s not sure.

(If it’s one of her followers she’s gonna kick their ass.)

It’s really weird and she’s kind of freaking out about it. Add being followed to the list of things Sunshine doesn’t like. 

She grumbles and fiddles with the door, finding it unlocked. Oh. “Hey mom,” she greets as she walks in to the house. “When did you get home?”

Sunshine looks around and finds her mother standing in the living room, staring at the wall, completely still and unmoving. She almost walks right past her. “Mom..?”

“Mom.” Sunshine quickly moves over to Kat, who is muttering something under her breath. She steps in front of her mother’s face, which looks pale and shadowed. Her eyes are dim and there are black rings around her eyes, like she hasn’t been getting any sleep.

What the hell. “Oh my god. Mom.” This — this is reminding her of when her mother cut herself, so many months ago, just standing over the sink as if she wasn’t even breathing. 

She doesn’t get a response.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The follow-up to her mother’s weird trance: she’s doing better, she’s doing okay. It’s relieving. And considering that Kat had a really high fever, Sunshine figures it’s just something to do with sickness. 

It’s been pretty quiet, though. That’s good. That’s always good.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
A few hours later, Sunshine is outside, standing on the trampoline and looking uneasy. “So I found.. what I’m pretty sure is my dad’s number in my mom’s.. phone.” She bites her lip as she looks at the camera. “And I think — I mean, I don’t know, I’m thinking about calling him.”

Is that a good idea?

“What do you guys think? I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about it, with mom being sick and everything, and.. if she.. _did_ — you know.” There’s a long hesitation, and Sunshine winces. “Die. I’d be alone. I don’t have anyone. I don’t have like a — everyone else is gone.”

It crumples her heart in to pieces. “So it’s just got me to thinking and stuff, so, I don’t know. I’m thinking about calling him. Maybe not. I might. I don’t know.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The next day, Sunshine is back facing the camera. “Okay, so I found this address in my mom’s stuff, like an address or something. So I tried to call the number — cause I _think_ it belongs to my dad. So I called but.. he didn’t pick up, and I don’t think it was my dad, so, so yeah, I’m just gonna go, I’m, takin’ the car and, driving there to... the house. So, yeah.”

She turns the screen around. “I’m bringing along my lockety thingy that my dad gave to my mom when they were first married, so, it’s a little way of proving that I’m who I say I am. I’m really excited about it.” She laughs. “ _Really_ excited. I’ll film everything guys, don’t worry. But it’s gonna be awesome.”

Sunshine smiles. “So, yeah. I’ll keep you posted.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The light beats down on her as she stumbles around the backyard. Sunshine’s eyes are rimmed dark and red, and her hair is bushing up, as if she hasn’t even bothered to keep it under control.

“So,” she begins, crying out, “I’m back from the house.” She whimpers. “Worst day ever. I — I don’t know what that had to do with my dad at all. It was weird.”

Her lip quivers and she continues muttering, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t..” Sunshine wants to fall to her knees and cry, just scream at the world until her voice is raw and her throat burns. She doesn’t want to think about it anymore.

“I drove all the way home and — who was that man? Why was he there, why did he chase me?” She sobs and clutches her eyes, wiping the wetness away from her cheeks. 

“It was horrible. It was so bad. It was terrible. I hated it. It was bad. It was bad.” She shakes her head. “And, and it was the worst day ever, I can’t show you guys, it was so bad, it — I cant.”

“I can’t.”

Sunshine eventually cuts the camera and falls in to bed, hugging her mattress and sobbing until she falls asleep. She doesn’t tell her mom. Her mom doesn’t need to know. _No one_ needs to know.

Her followers all want to see it, of course. But — she can’t show them. There’s too much there. She doesn’t know if she should call the cops. Maybe she should.

She doesn’t know.

She really doesn’t.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
The next day, after the flood of comments she receives, Sunshine decides she’s going to post the footage. She thinks she’s ready, and maybe her subscribers can help her figure out what happened. 

God, she’s gonna do it.

Here goes nothing.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angst


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine visits the house, but things don’t exactly go as planned.

When Sunshine first arrives to the house, it feels ethereal. It’s tucked in the farthest corner of the overgrown street, surrounded by tall, gnarled and twisted trees. Flowers sprout from the leaves above, fluttering to the ground and dotting the earth. The pale outline of the house blends in with the vines and tangles of bushes, but Sunshine knows this is the right place.

Okay. Maybe this is a little creepy. Yeah, the place _is_ hidden behind nature and it seems like no one even lives here anymore, but.. God, it’s so beautiful.

When Sunshine exits the car, bird chirping echoes through the forest, the sun spilling through the empty spaces and lighting up the entire area. She walks up to the front screen door, or what she figures is the front door, and hesitates.

Does she really want to knock?

Ugh. Man up. She has to. This could be the only chance she meets her dad.

Sunshine sucks her teeth and bangs on the door, shoulders tensing and eyes flicking around. She can sort of see through the screen, and isn’t sure she likes what she sees. It’s dusty and dirty inside, but the outside is just so pretty. How can she not love it?

Sunshine steps back toward the edges of the clearing, wondering why everything seems so overgrown. Maybe her father does live here, but he doesn’t — he doesn’t try to fix the place up? That could be it. That could make sense. Right?

She follows a widened trail through the forest and circles around the back of the house. There’s a dark shed nestled between the trees that she doesn’t really want to go in, either. All of the windows are covered in plants so she doesn’t think anyone lives here anymore, but is hesitant to barge in and snoop around.

Maybe she has to.

Sunshine sighs and picks her way back to the front door, peering through the screen and sighing. She tries the door but it seems to be stuck. She bites her tongue and squints, feeling her hand along the base and shoving it open. Dust clutters to her senses and she coughes, blown back by surprise.

No way anyone lives here.

Sunshine tentatively enters the house. The first room is dark. Light filters in through the half-shut curtains, but only really reveals the crumpled bed sheets piled on the ground. There are a few wooden shelves perched along the walls, and a chair to accompany, but everything is otherwise empty. 

God, imagine cleaning this place.

Sunshine looks over the bags stuffed with books, grunting. Everything here looks old; based on the carpet below, this house hasn’t been occupied since the 90s. Or at least, that’s what it looks like.

Please don’t tell Sunshine this is where her father lives.

She turns toward a short hallway, where the carpet becomes hard, compact stone. She’s pretty sure there’s a dead mouse in the middle of the floor. “Hello?” she calls out, blinking, looking worried. No answer.

On the right of the hall is an open kitchen, accompanied with a refrigerator, a stove, a sink, and cabinets. There’s a swirled key on one of the counters. Sunshine nears, brows furrowed. She’s not sure what it goes to, but picks it up and stuffs it in her pocket anyway.

Sunshine gazes around the small kitchen, while the blue, yellow, and pale green spotted walls glare back at her. Ugly ass wallpaper.

Across from the fridge is a jammed door that Sunshine pries open. More dust chokes her as she enters, until she realizes this is the room that leads to the basement. She’s not going down there.

Sunshine breathes out, padding in to what looks like a — living room with counters along the edges? There are about three dozen glass jars laying on the floor, facing downward and curled around each other. Weird.

On one of the counters is an old, beautiful, black typewriter. An ancient radio sits across, but it won’t splutter on. Sunshine moves the curtains to look out on the forest, plant stems reaching up and tapping on the windows.

Sunshine continues checking out the room and finds a disgusting closet with a rat’s nest inside. She rounds her body to the nearest door, but finds it’s locked once she attempts to open it. Sunshine purses her lips and walks in to another open space, with several shadowed closed doors. “Hm, which creepy door to open first?” she muses.

Sunshine tries the middle one, which springs open to reveal a dark closet. The left one has a soft, pale light illuminating the bottom, and she can see the dirt floating around the air. Sunshine covers her mouth and walks inside, staring at the piled books and the two cabinets in the middle of the room.

On one of the walls, a calendar is hanging. It’s from October of 2000. Eleven years ago. It seems this place has been deserted for just as long.

Sunshine hums and looks over the books surrounded by bubble wrap. She turns her attention to the mirror then down to a ‘Family Record’, which is completely empty. Hm. She wanted to find something interesting here.

She shuffles back to the calendar, observing the door right beside. Sunshine opens it with little fear, gazing inside another dark closet. It’s void of anything, save for a few hangers.

Sunshine shrugs and walks back to the open living area, clicking open another creepy door. It widens to a bathroom, with a rotten sink and a pink, stone-covered shower. She tries the locked door again, but it’s still the same, of course. 

She works her way back to the first room. “Hello?” Sunshine calls out one last time, shaking her head. She’s been everywhere in the house and it’s clearly abandoned. What else can she do?

(Well. She hasn’t checked the basement yet, but she’s definitely not going down there.)

She makes a face.

Shit.

She’s going down there, isn’t she?

Sunshine breathes heavily, walking past the creepy knives stuck in the walls and shuffling in to the room before the basement. She grabs a large flashlight next to her and staggers down the steps, gazing down at the darkness, at the shadows that eat away at her mind and promise to bring only nightmares.

Yeah. She’s still terrified of the dark.

She waves the flashlight around, making it to the foot of the stairs. The camera’s audio splutters for a moment as Sunshine looks down. There are empty plastic bottles and — she begins shaking. A picture of the father and the daughter with bags over their heads. What the hell —

A sound behind startles her. Sunshine whips around, eyes wide, head jerking to the side. She quickly runs up the stairs, chest constricting and mind growing fuzzy. She doesn’t want to be here anymore. She can’t be here.

Sunshine quickly jogs through the front door and out to the car, adrenaline flooding through her veins. The picture — it was there. Why was it there? Had her father sent her the warning? 

Is this even her dad’s address?

The idea that it could be some random person’s house shocks her. But she tries to ignore it and continues walking through the path, green fluttering around her as she breathes and closes her eyes. She needs to calm down. She’s fine. She’s _fine_.

She slips in to the driver’s seat and plugs the key in to the ignition, but pauses. She’s going to figure this out, sooner or later. Sunshine sighs and begins driving forward before realizing something. The locket. God! What an idiot! She forgot it inside, and it’s the only way to prove that her dad is her dad and — ughhhh. Sunshine wipes her hand down her face. She’s gonna have to go back in, isn’t she.

Not to mention that her mother will know if Sunshine doesn’t bring it back.

She breathes in and out, then stops dead in her seat. She turns the camera to a tall man that walks out from behind the bushes, dressed in a black suit with a white undershirt, black pants, and black shoes. He has a head of short gray hair, and a stubbled beard along his chin and cheeks.

“Hello?” Sunshine begins to shake. The man tilts his head from side to side, staring at her through the car. “I’m sorry, is this your house? I didn’t — I didn’t know.” She can’t bite back the feelings of unease staring at this person, though.

This — surely this isn’t her father?

He doesn’t reply and Sunshine catches her breath. “Dad..?”

The man suddenly lunges forward and scrambles on to the hood of the car, pressing his hands to the windshield and trying to stick his arm through the slightly open driver’s window. “Leave me alone!” She screams, dropping the camera out of the car. “Don’t touch me!” Sunshine floors the gas and throws the man off. He rolls in the dirt and falls on his face, unmoving.

“Oh my God!” Sunshine cries and leaps out of the car, running to grab her camera and staring at the man. Her eyes water. “Are you okay?!”

She nears him and sees the blood pooled over his hand and fingers. She bends down and touches the man’s arm, crying. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, are you okay? Oh God, are you okay? I’m so sorry.”

He jerks up and tries to reach for Sunshine. She lets out a blood-curdling scream and turns, running for the house. She can hear him grunt and pant as he gets on his feet, swiveling his head in her direction.

He runs after her.

Sunshine rips open the front door and slams it shut behind her. She whimpers and locks it, watching the man run in to the glass. He snarls like a wild animal and claws at the screen, trying to get in, staring at her with dark brown eyes. “Go away!”

She can see the blood dribbling down his face now and fear grips her heart. He backs away from the front door, however, and Sunshine whips around. Where does she go? God, she’s freaking the fuck out and she still needs to find her locket and — AGH! Where does she hide?!

Sunshine backs in to a closet in one of the smaller rooms of the house. She can hear what sounds like a back door open and shakes, holding her breath. Footsteps echo down the hallways and she can hear things being thrown around. A dark shape moves past the crack of the door and she holds back a cry of fear and anguish.

His shoes kick over the wooden floor as he turns around, looking past the closet door. Sunshine watches as he holds a white cloth to his face, then, to her horror, slides it over his head. It’s — it’s just like the picture. The man and the daughter with the white bags over their heads, this is it, this is — this is exactly —

The man angrily stomps out of the room and begins throwing more things around. Sunshine looks side to side and decides to make a run for it. She — she can do that, right?

Maybe she should wait.

Sunshine continues breathing in and out and just sits in the darkness of the closet. Things become quiet after a few minutes and she wonders where the man is. Maybe he’s gone? Left through a secret door that she didn’t hear?

She doesn’t know. But she _does_ know she needs to run.

A staticy buzzing causes Sunshine to wince, and she creeps toward the door to the room. Is that the camera? No, it’s something in the house. And it’s getting louder as she nears the hallway. It sounds like a mix of wind and someone scratching at a screen door — hell, maybe it is.

Oh, no. It isn’t. She gasps softly when she enters the hallway and sees the man on his knees, hands curved at awkward angles at the sides of his face, bag over his head and body jerking every few seconds. He growls and holds the cloth, slipping it off of his head. The noise dulls and Sunshine stands there, staring at this strange man, not able to move. Her body won’t allow it.

Then, he slams a hand to the wall and whips his head around. Sunshine screams and slams the door shut, turning and running out of the front door. She jumps in to her car and jerks the keys in, pressing on the gas. The man follows behind and she screams even louder, pulling out as quickly as possible, sobbing.

The batteries of her camera die.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when i was like 9 and watched these ‘worst day ever’ videos i stg they scared me so fucking much like. major terrifying. it’s very nostalgic to go back and watch
> 
> anyway yeah this took me like an hour to write and i’m happy with it
> 
> le master soon and hopefully uncle tommy sooner just stay tuned


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine and Kat return to the creepy house. Her mother’s acting weird.

Sunshine does eventually call the police and they look around the house. They report not finding anything and explain that it actually belongs to a family that lives back east. They have nothing to do with — they’re not related to her parents or anything like that. It’s weird.

Nothing can really be done unless she knows who the creepy dude was, or unless someone calls in a report of seeing the man. It kind of sucks, but — at least she’s safe. The ghosts are nothing compared to the terror of being chased by that man.

Sunshine is fairly certain that’s the guy that was stalking her, though. If so, that’s probably why he followed her out to the house.

(Then again, she can’t explain the picture in the basement.)

She also noted that, looking back on the footage, the creepy dude looked like he had some kind of weird infection or disease on his face.

She’s not sure. She just wants to forget about all of this and move on.

Except, of course, her mother finds out. 

Since Sunshine wasn’t able to retrieve the locket, she can’t really hide the fact that she took it with her to the terrifying house. She really, really did try not to tell her mother. But she just — she didn’t want to go back to the house alone and Sunshine may or may not have confessed to going and now her mother is flipping out and —

Everything is just _great_.

Maybe it’s for the better, though.

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“Okay, so we’ve been waiting for a _really_ long time, how long?”

Sunshine is in the passenger seat of the car and looks toward her mother. Kat looks over, clearly annoyed. “What are you doing?”

She stares at her mother then waves her hand toward the camera, sighing. “We’ve been waiting for probably over an hour.”

“For a _flake_.”

“For mom’s friend who used to be a cop.”

“Who now is a flake apparently.” Kat tilts her head upward and draws out her lip. “You suck!”

“Um, so.” She grunts. “I’m getting bored.”

Her mother scoffs. “That’s the concern, that you’re bored, princess?”

“Well..” Sunshine drops her hands and shakes her head.

“Do you want to go by yourself?”

“Nooo, I didn’t like it the first time, clearly!”

“Yeah,” Kat mocks, “how’d that work out for you?”

“Hhhhheh.” She sticks her tongue out and rolls her eyes.

Kat leans her head on the palm of her hand, brushing her fingers through her auburn hair. “I don’t —” She grits her teeth. “Why did you go, why didn’t you tell me?”

Sunshine looks away and all emotion drops from her face. “Because you wouldn’t have let me go.”

Her mother grunts. “Damn straight.”

She rolls her eyes at the camera.

After another moment of silence Kat lifts herself up, sighing. “Let’s just go. Roll the camera in case anything happens, how about that.”

“Okay.”  
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“Okay, this is it, that’s it, right there.”

They’ve been driving for about a half hour when they reach the gravel road, familiar enough to Sunshine that she knows where they are. Kat ducks her head and looks around, squinting. She can see the familiar wooden panels of the house expertly hidden behind the foliage and tries to point it out to her mother.

“Where?” Kat draws forward, narrowing her eyes.

“Right there.” She shakes her head as her mother spots the decrepit house.

“Oh.” Sunshine looks around at the beautiful painted greens and yellow spotting the area. “How’d you even find this, honey?”

“Very, very carefully.”

Kat sighs and stops the car, hands shaking. “You know what,” she murmurs, pulling the gear in PARK and biting her lip. “It kind of does look familiar.”

Sunshine’s eyes widen. “Really?”

“Just —” Her mother slips the keys out. “Let’s just get it and get out.”

She jumps out of the passenger seat, feet falling on the soft grass under, blinking at the more or less familiar atmosphere. There’s the rose bush over there, and she can see the twisted trees towering above their heads. Everything here is so bliss — or, well, _was_. But after that experience with the creepy dude... she’s not too sure she can see the house in the same light anymore.

Sunshine tucks her jacket in to her body and pulls her hair back, following her mother toward the front door. They both whip their heads around to see if there’s anyone — or, more importantly, the creepy dude — lurking around. They’re both on high alert. Maybe that’s good.

She instinctively pulls closer to her mother, breathing out heavily as the frame of the house comes closer to their view. “It’s alright,” Kat whispers, squeezing her daughter’s hand protectively. 

Sunshine really, _really_ doesn’t want to be back here.

Kat peels open the screen and stares at the hand prints scraped against the dirty window. Sunshine looks down and her mother doesn’t hesitate to throw the door open. It creaks and rattles and Sunshine winces, thinking back to the man chasing her, to slamming the door, to —

When they enter, it looks the same, but there’s an aura of panic and fright here. Sunshine doesn’t like it, and neither does her mother. “Let’s just get the locket and get out of here,” Kat says, moving to the hallway where the man had — had been kneeling with the bag over his head, unnatural movements dancing over his hands. “Where’d you go?”

Sunshine stumbles over her words. “All over.” Her throat is dry and her mouth is parched. “The only room that wouldn’t open is that one.” She points to the locked door, pursing her lips.

“Okay, so we know the locket’s not in there.” Kat walks in to the room Sunshine had been hiding in. “Did you open any drawers?”

She glances over at the 2000 calendar and shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so — I mean, I looked around in the kitchen and stuff and..” She hesitates. “I went in the basement.”

She strides to the kitchen, Kat’s footsteps behind her, and Sunshine stares at the basement door before tugging it open. She glances at the chair leaning against the wall. “Yeah, through here.”

Sunshine looks through the darkness under the house before realizing something isn’t right. “Mom?” She turns and holds her breath, rushing back through the kitchen and to the hall. Hadn’t she — hadn’t she been right behind her? “Mom?” Her voice has a hint of terror that trickles within. She doesn’t want to be alone.

She pries through the front room before realizing the door is open. Sunshine grits her teeth, pushing the anxiety down. “Mom..!” She’s more annoyed than anything now, but feels something darker here. 

When Sunshine exits the house in to the beating sunlight, her body freezes and her shoulders tense, eyes growing wide. “Mom.” She begins to tremble. “Mama.”

She’s no where in sight. “Mom?” Sunshine advances through one of the wide, winding trails, heart pumping way too fast for her little body. She stumbles up to a side door she didn’t know existed and gasps when her mother walks out.

“I found the locket,” Kat says, holding it in her hand. “Let’s go.”

“What?” Sunshine is confused. Why — why did her mother just leave her like that? Why is she so serious, and rushing out?

“I heard voices.” Her mother begins running to the car.

“I don’t understand — what?” Sunshine sprints after.

“I heard voices! Come on!”

“What?!”  
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Three days of recurring nightmares later, Sunshine is thinking. Mostly, thinking about the house videos. She has some... unanswered questions that she wants to know the answers to, to say the least. 

What are they?

Well, question number one: Mom is acting weird. She’s completely ignoring the fact that she said she heard voices and she won’t talk to Sunshine about it. It’s kind of.. strange. It leaves a foreboding feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. 

The other thing, why does Mom have the address to that house? If they don’t know those people, and Kat doesn’t even fully recognize the place or know where it’s located, then there should be no reason it was tucked away in her drawer.

I mean, the people that own the house — they live in the east coast. They just have a house here. Strange. 

Question number two: why was that guy there? Why was he — she, she feels like it’s part of something else. Like, it had something else to do with something else. Not entirely to do with _this_. Sunshine doesn’t know. But he was there, and it was frightening, and she’s glad she’ll never have to see him again.

Question number three: does the house, the address, the phone number have anything to do with her dad, or is it just... nothing? And why was the photo in the basement?! That was creepy and it keeps popping up out of no where. It makes absolutely no sense.

Sigh.

Sunshine really, really needs some answers.  
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Two days have passed and Sunshine is growing more and more worried. Her mother is still acting — well, _strange_ , and she won’t talk to her daughter about the house. She’s just kind of, of ignoring the whole thing like it didn’t even happen. Like she said, it’s weird, and she’s not liking it.

Oh. She’s also meeting with the local paranormal cult expert soon — and also a medium! — so that’s something to look forward to. 

Something...  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mom is getting weird y’all


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine meets with the paranormal expert while her mother only grows worse.

Sunshine finds something weird.

“Okay, so I was going through my videos, getting ready to post one, and..” she pauses and sighs, brushing her hair back through the cold, outside wind. “Right in the middle of all of them.. there was this video of, of my mom.”

Sunshine looks around. “I don’t — just watch.”

The video glitches to her mother sitting at the living room table, running her finger down a book page. She looks relatively normal then lifts her head. “I don’t know.” She pauses. “Hang on.”

Did Sunshine mention that no one else is in the room?

Kat slowly flips through some of the pages, eyes hardened and glued to the words. She leans back and blows out, shoulders tensing. “What about — no, hang on, just a second, I’ll think of it.”

She rests on a page and tilts her chin upward, blinking oddly. “Okay.” She slowly nods to the empty seat as if she’s taking in information. “Okay,” she says with finality, understanding. Kat then squints. “You think that’ll work?”

Another page flips and she rests her cheek on her hand with a sigh, seemingly listening to someone tell her something. “Okay.” She nods and the camera splutters, reeling as Kat looks at the camera, eyes darkening. It goes black.

Sunshine looks at the screen, a little defeated and confused. “Yeah, I’m not exactly.. sure what to, make of that.”  
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“So I’m supposed to be meeting.. Bailey..” She’s standing outside, gray clouds melting above her head, wind blowing through her hair and buzzing over the camera. “At this park,” she continues. “And I think I.. see him.”

Sunshine begins walking forward, raising a brow. “I hope that’s not him.” In the distance, sitting criss-cross on one of the pale green wooden tables, is who she’s praying isn’t Bailey. “But anyways. I don’t know. He’s gonna talk to me for a little while.. a little first pre-meeting thing. So this should be.. interesting. Get ready to have fun, kids.”

She turns the camera around and faces the man. His hands are facing upwards on his curled in knees, back straight and eyes diverted forward. He’s wearing a green striped shirt, black pants and black boots. He has shining black hair wiping over his forehead, and a noticeable beard and moustache wraps around his chin. A pair of amber sunglasses hangs from his collar, swinging over the buttons of his shirt.

He’s completely still.

“Are you.. Bailey?” When Sunshine speaks, he turns his head, face neutral.

“In some circles.” He dips his head, showing the tattoo on his neck. “I prefer to be called LeMaster.”

Sunshine snorts loudly and leans forward, not even trying to hide her amusement. She then holds her tongue at his glare. “LeMaster. Right.”

“You laugh at me?”

“No,” she says, smothering a giggle, “of course not. No.”

“Only the fool laughs at a master.”

“Oh. Then no, I wasn’t.. laughing.”

He nods slowly and returns to staring forward.

“So.” She bites her lip. “Right. Ready to, get, started?”

He almost looks annoyed and shakes his head lightly. “What? What do you want?”

“Well, I thought you were a —”

“Shhh shh shh shh.” His voice draws in to a soft echo and he curls his fingers, twirling them around in front of his body. “Listen to the birds chirp. What do you hear?”

A pause. “Chirp...ing?”

“Secrets. Of ancient past.”

“Secrets... is that what I’m.. hearing.”

Bailey — no, _LeMaster_ — breathes in and closes his eyes as if he’s trying to control his temper. “They’re there for those who listen.” He pulls his hand to his ear, listening.

“Oh.”

He puts his hands together and dips his head. “Namaste.”

“Right. Nama..ste..”

He turns his palms upwards to his knees and reverts to his original position. A sigh. “What do you want?”

“Well I thought you were an expert. On.. paranormal and.. cult activity.”

“It is true. What do you seek of me.”

“Well I’m.. being.. haunted.” LeMaster looks at her. “And uhh.. by probably more than one ghost and, and I think that, y’know, you may be able to help me..?” She pulls out the picture of the bagged father and daughter. “Here’s a.. photo.”

He twirls his hands forward and holds the paper out in front of him. LeMaster inspects it before looking up, unamused. “Is this a joke.”

“No?”

He blinks with displeasure. “Is this photoshopped.”

“Of course not!”

“This is real.”

“Yeah.”

He tilts his head and his eyes flicker back to the photo. The man licks two fingers and presses them to his forehead, closing his eyes. He slides the fingers down his chest and breathes in, then out loudly. “I will look in to it.”

“Right.” He stares at her. “Okay.”

LeMaster circles his hand around his body. “Please exit my space.”

“Oh. Okay, well, thank you.” He flicks his hand foreward. “LeMaster.”

“LeMaster.”

“LeMaster. Thanks.” Sunshine turns and begins to walk away, shaking her head. “That wasn’t weird at all. We’ll be getting back to him apparently.” She smiles in an uncomfortable sort of way and gives a thumbs up.

What a day.  
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“So I haven’t seen Creepy Lady in a while, as you all know,” Sunshine begins, standing with the kitchen behind her. “And... now, out of the blue, she’s back — I’ve seen her twice today, in fact. So.. I’m not, sure, but you guys — I mean, I would’ve told you if she came back, and she hasn’t, and now she’s back, and... usually means.. something’s wrong.”

Things have been fine for over three months. Why does she have to come _now_?

Sunshine sighe. “According to.. the past. So. I don’t know.”

Maybe if Creepy Lady comes around again, Sunshine will confront her.

A few hours later, she’s ready to go outside and talk to her mom about the ghost situation. She opens the sliding back door and pads in to the yard, smiling at her mother. She’s sitting in one of the chairs, magazine in hand.

“Hey mom!” Sunshine greets.

Kat hardly looks up. “Hey.”

She hesitates but sits down on the steps, deciding to start first. “I was just, uh, wondering if.. I mean like, you know, how’s it goin’ and everything?”

Her mother looks up. “Why do you have the camera on.” Her voice isn’t like normal, though. Not curious or interested, or even playfully annoyed. No. She actually sounds like the camera is disturbing her.

“Oh, I’m just..” Sunshine trails off, unsure of what to say. “Filmin’ me. You know. Sometimes I put up videos that are just random.”

Kat crosses her arms and closes her eyes, pressing her forehead like she’s in pain. She says something in a mutter that Sunshine can’t quite understand.

“Um, so,” she continues, “how do you feel about all this.. ghost stuff, you know?”

She scratches her cheek. “What —” Kat looks up and looks even more irritated. “I don’t wanna be on camera.”

“I mean, do you — do you feel like we should move? The lease is up, in like a month..”

Kat rolls her eyes. “No, I don’t think it’s a big deal, I like it here.”

“You _like_ it here — Mom.” Sunshine grits her teeth as her mother continues idly turning the pages of the magazine. “Mom, you don’t have to lie to the camera.”

She aggressively drops the edges of the book. “Turn the camera off,” she sighs in exasperation.

“So — these ghosts, you know?”

Kat shakes her head. “I don’t think we have ghosts.”

Sunshine’s mouth falls with shock and confusion. They don’t — they don’t _what_ now? Has her mother not been present for the past half year? Is she not remembering all of the shit that happened to them? The door scratches? The knife cut? The bloody bathroom? Even the EVPs recorded at the hotel two months ago?!

“All right, well, mmm.” She’s holding back her anger and stands, clapping her hands. “Good talk.”

“Don’t post that,” Kat calls as she walks away.

“I won’t.” Sunshine turns the camera to herself as she makes her way inside. “See what I mean?”  
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Two days later, Sunshine is.. pondering.

“I was just.. walking in the hallway,” she says, padding around in the backyard, brows furrowed, “on the stairs, and I hear this really... _clear_ voice. Like, as if you were talking to me, it — it said ‘Don’t trust her.’ And I didn’t have my camera on me, I was walking down the stairs.”

She looks annoyed and shrugs her shoulders. “It’s not like I was, you know, filming me walkin’ down the stairs.” Sunshine sighs. “So, I.. sat in the stairwell for a little while and waited — with my camera on — but I didn’t hear anything else.”

Sunshine scratches her nose, concern written all over her face. “But I, I don’t know what that means, like.. I haven’t — it was just there, I haven’t heard voices as clear as that. So that really.. concerned me a bit. But I mean like, who do you think it is, do you think it’s Creepy Lady? Could be one of, of the ghosts? I mean it was right here.” She raises her hand to the side of her face. “Maybe it’s something I don’t even know yet. I don’t..”

A heavy breath leaves her lips. “What do you guys think?”  
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It’s around 1:00 in the morning when something wakes Sunshine up. She quickly throws the covers over her head and whips the camera out, slightly reassured by the familiar blinking red light.

“You guys remember how I said I would film everything?” Her face is dark and pale under the sheets, cheeks illuminating with a ruby glow. “Yeah. Something’s happening. Clearly I’m filming.”

She holds her breath, turning her head a little. “I heard a noise.” Sunshine freezes when footsteps trickle in to her ears. She can hear her door click, like someone is trying to pry it open, and she closes her eyes, listening intently.

A deep growl rumbles through the room. “There it was,” she whispers, trying to hold on to her bravery before it inevitably crumbles away. Out of the little streaks of light shining in under the covers, Sunshine can tell that a dark shadow passes by. The snarl is closer now; almost inches away from her body. She’s shaking.

“I should find out what it is.” Should she? Is that actually a good idea? No, probably not, but she has to face her fear of ghosts and the dark sooner than later. “Okay. I got this, I can do it.” Sunshine closes her eyes and curls her fingers around the camera.

She lifts herself from the tangle of linen and shines the soft yellow flashlight over the room. The growl chokes her to a momentary freeze, and her heart strangles in her chest, desperately trying to leap out. The glow flickers over a dark shape and Sunshine holds back a gasp, beginning to shake.

But it’s — it has human hands. Familiar ones at that. And as Sunshine looks up the person’s gray and white striped shirt and auburn hair, Sunshine realizes who it is.

Her mother.

Kat’s face is blank and dry with any sort of emotion. Her eyes are dark and far-away. It’s — it’s scary, truly, it is. “Mom?” She blinks but doesn’t look toward her daughter. “Mom!” A horrible, horrible feeling spreads through her limbs like ice. “Mom?” Sunshine’s voice quivers.

Her mother blinks a few times in a row then slowly looks around, brows presses together in a confused expression. Kat pauses then turns, stepping out of the room.

“Mommy! Mom..”

What the hell is happening? _ _  
⠀_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LE MASTER IS FINALLY HERE I’M LITERALLY SCREAMING
> 
> ughhhh i LOVE this creepy mama and it only gets worse from here. stay tuned folks
> 
> oh the medium is arriving soon too :)


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LeMaster leaves a weird voicemail, and the medium has a bad experience.

So Sunshine’s just woken up after last night’s weird events and feels a little ruffled. Actually, she’s not sure how long she slept. Going back to that void is hard to achieve once your mother has walked in to your room _growling_ for no apparent reason.

It was weird. So, so weird. She knows that some of her subscribers have — have been talking about stuff. She doesn’t believe it. She doesn’t even really believe people can be possessed. But even if it _is_ real, Sunshine doesn’t believe that it’s happening to her mom.

Maybe she can take her mother to the doctor or something. If she agrees, of course. But Sunshine is positive things will resolve on their own.

Haven’t they always?  
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Thank God, Sunshine’s mom is doing _much_ better. She’s lost her fever and her mood has certainly improved — her personality seems to be coming back. She’s not so.. weird. 

She’s kind of amused so many people thought her mother was possessed. Funny joke. Doesn’t exist, and Kat certainly isn’t being held by some demon. That’s insane. But now they don’t have to go to the doctor. It all seems to be... good.

Oh. It took a lot of effort on Sunshine’s part, but she’s finally been able to convince a very established, well-known medium to come out and look at the place and help them out and everything. So, that’ll be fun. Maybe. Kind of.

(Even if he doesn’t really want to come out because he thinks her videos are fake.)

It should be interesting because.. well, he’s coming tomorrow. She’s excited.

Hopefully only good news is shared.  
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Later that evening, Sunshine receives a voicemail from LeMaster.

“Greetings young girl, this is LeMaster, paranormal expert.” Sunshine rolls her eyes and ignores his quick, worrisome tone. “I am looking in to the photo that you gave me, I need you to call me back as soon as possible. You are in grave danger.” Her eyes widen with confusion and doubt as his voice shakes over the speaker. “There is a haunting at play.”

She blinks slowly, pursing her lips and placing her phone down. Guess she’ll have to call him back.  
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“So, whenever you’re ready, it’s on.”

Sitting on the gray living room couch is a decently-aged man. He’s wearing a plain, pale tan business coat, with a white undershirt and khaki pants. His shoes are dressy and a tight belt wraps around his waist. His arms are resting along the sides of the pillows in a calm, passive sort of manner, and his light eyes reflect genuine curiosity. His white hair is slick and wavy on his head. “So I introduce myself?”

“Yeah, sure.” Sunshine leans back on the other couch, eyes flickering down to the flashing red camera light.

“My name is Alistair Turnbull,” the man begins, British accent heavy and grating against his throat. He almost sounds like the narrator on Planet Earth. “I’m a _recognized_ medium and exorcist.” He lifts his hands before they flop back down. “I work mostly in the ancient kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. In fact, the smelly ghost of leper castle is one of my greatest successes.”

Full of himself, much?

“Haunted Sunshine Girl,” he continues. “Very personable. Very attractive. Very _believable_. But, I think there is some trickery here.”

Sunshine makes a face.

“You see — a poltergeist. A poltergeist _literally_ means, in German, noisy ghost. A poltergeist.. generally haunts a specific person, usually a young adolescent. Puberty. Hormones. Racing. And that could explain.” He pauses. “That could explain the unicorn moving, explain the doors slamming, it could explain the noises.”

Alistair sighs. “But then in these videos I’m also seeing.. orbs and seeing shadow ghosts, I’m seeing ectoplasm. And I’m seeing _full-bodied_ manifestations. That can’t happen in the same, in the same arena, in the same _house_ as an evil ghost such as a poltergeist. So, I’m beginning to wonder whether Haunted Sunshine Girl is for real.”

What is he accusing her of again?

He waves a hand. “Now, I think she’s incredibly personable _but_ is this, what we’re really seeing. Or is it phony.”

“Right.” Sunshine is growing annoyed. “So you’re good?”

“Yes.” He nods.

“Let’s get started then.”

She turns to her mother, who’s been standing in the doorway, listening intently. Sunshine adjusts the camera to face the two women sitting across from Alistair, who smiles.

“Haunted Sunshine Girl,” he begins. Sunshine rests her chin on her knuckles. 

“You can just... call her Sunshine,” Kat buts in.

“Sunshine.” The medium sighs. “I referred to the possibility of some trickery here.” She nods and Kat rolls her eyes. “Let, let me explain to you what the spirit world is. It’s not a world, a physical world per se. This probably — an _esoteric_ world, and a world of electromagnetism of individual vibrations.”

Kat looks unamused as he goes on. “The soul leaves the body, the spirit leaves the body at death, the aura breaks away, leaving physical body... finished.” He crosses his arms. “Lighter. And that spirit enters the lower aura of dimension. It hasn’t quite worked out yet, its emotions, its human emotions, its _own_ emotions. Often, unfulfilled emotions — hate, viciousness, sadness, usually the _bad_ emotions.”

Hm. Sunshine is pretty sure she’s seen all of these emotions from ghosts. “And it lives in this lower aura, it’s sometimes described as two plates. The human world is a plate, and the lower aura is another plate, and they are revolving around each other, different speeds. In the middle of each is a wrench, is a, a hole, is a method where we can see through each other as they coincide, as these holes coincide. And then that spirit — and especially that spirit — is able to communicate and will start to reach the higher level, a higher aura, we — we call it _Summerland_.”

Kat raises a brow.

“Winston Churchill once called it —” Alistair looks up, “going on to our sunlit upland. Reaching sunlit upland, and _then_ those spirits have become more... acceptable as to the new spirit world, and they will begin to part from us, but still there is that lower area of spirits that have not _attained_ the higher level.”

Sunshine looks bored.

“They are still yearning. Sometimes, wistfully, sometimes with great aging, sometimes with great sadness, sometimes with _evil_ intent — the Ouija board, for example — to communicate with us. Does that make sense?”

Sunshine stares at him for a minute before exchanging a glance with her mother. “Mmmhm,” she chirps.

“Well let’s see — if we do have a spirit in this house —”

“ _Right_! Let’s get this party started! Cool.”

Alistair looks at Sunshine and Kat grunts. “I think he’s being serious.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay.” She smiles and the medium blinks, looking confused as to how he’s gotten himself in a situation like so. 

Kat pats Sunshine’s leg and they all stand. Alistair lifts himself to his feet, holding his glasses. “So Sunshine,” he commences, “we shall _see_ if you have a ghost.”

“Yeah,” she murmurs, watching him withdraw a white beaded necklace with a cross on the end. Sunshine raises a brow and watches the man glance around.

Kat covers a laugh and Sunshine tries not to smile. “This guy’s weird,” she whispers. Her mother wheezes but hides it by clearing her throat.

Alistair moves slowly toward the kitchen and Sunshine follows. His hands are outstretched to his sides and his eyes are cracked shut. “I —” He turns, appearing to be genuinely startled. “I feel something.”

No shit. Sunshine laughs and the medium walks past her, eyes narrowed. “I feel — no, I can _see_ —” She moves the camera toward the empty curtains, “I can see a man. I see a man, but I can’t see his eyes. I can’t see his mouth. His head is covered.”

Sunshine draws in a breath, all amusement gone from her face. What did he just say. “Some old... sack. A burlap sack.” Kat rolls her eyes but Sunshine.. she knows this man is truthful. She hasn’t shown him the pictures yet, and he has no idea about her being attacked by the bagged man _twice_. One in ghost form, and maybe.. one in human form..? Back at the creepy house?

“There’s a — child with him.” Sunshine blinks slowly then looks around, trying to contain her heavy gasps. “The child... can’t see, either. The child’s got a head covered in a sack. And yet, they’re looking over you and your mom.” 

How is that possible, though? If she — if she was attacked by the bagged man so many months ago, before Creepy Lady blessed the house, and if that man _was_ the man that chased her, then why would they have good intentions? Unless.. unless, perhaps, another ghost had pretended to be the bagged father? Maybe, maybe the man at the creepy house had been someone else completely? Not a ghost, but, but a worshipper of these spirits? 

Maybe it _was_ her dad?

Sunshine’s blood turns to chips of ice. “I’m feeling.. something else,” Alistair resumes, rounding back toward the kitchen. “A dark and _sinister_ energy. I can’t see — I can’t _see_ it, but I.. I can feel it.” He backs away slowly. “It’s closer to Earth, it’s closer to us. It is more evil. Its energy is more malicious.”

She grips the camera harder, trembling. “I’m losing sight of the two — the man and the little girl. This energy is becoming persuasive.” The medium’s voice quickens with worry. “It’s becoming — more, more, more overbearing.” He recoils. “It carries with it — great evil.”

Sunshine’s throat goes dry. “Great maliciousness. It’s —” Alistair gasps, pressing the cross to his lips and closing his eyes. He leans against a beam for support as Kat stands. 

“You alright..?” Sunshine watches the man shake. 

“I, I, I — I need to use a bathroom. Where is your bathroom?”

“It’s over there.” She points in the direction to that terrible, terrible bathroom and swallows as he rushes inside.

“Are you okay?” her mother asks.

“Are you sure.. you’re okay?” Sunshine’s eyes widen as Alistair slams the door behind him.

Kat runs over and gapes at her daughter, clearly confused. “That was weird..”

“Very.” 

The two lean against the walls and wait for minutes, but hardly hear anything coming from the bathroom. “He’s been in there _forever_ ,” she whispers to her mother.

“I can’t even hear anything,” Kat murmurs, turning her head toward the door. “I — seriously, how long do you think it’s been? Over twenty minutes? Thirty?”

“At least ten.” Sunshine listens through the door.

“Do you think he climbed out the window?”

“Why would he do that?!”

Kat sighs and knocks. “Are you okay?” Silence. “Mr. Turnbull?”

Sunshine taps her foot. “Just — just go in!”

“Why?!” Kat shakes her head.

She snorts. “He’s clearly not responding!”

Her mother sighs and hesitates before pushing open the door, cautiously glancing around the inside. Sunshine walks in first, eyes darting to the sink. She gasps softly at the dribbles of blood running over the edges.

“Are you okay — oh my gosh! What —” Sunshine looks in the mirror and sees Alistair sitting, shaking and seemingly convulsing. His lip is bleeding, or maybe it’s blood dripping out of his mouth. “Did you fall?” Kat touches his shoulder. “Here, let’s — help me.”

Sunshine reaches forward and grasps the man’s arm. They lead him out of the bathroom and to the living room. “J — just sit on the couch. I’m so sorry.” Kat looks back at her daughter, shocked.

Alistair is unresponsive. There’s a dark, horrified look in his eyes as he seats himself, cross curled in his hands. His knuckles are white.

“What happened?” her mother whispers, leaning down to his height.

“The dark energy,” he breathes out. Kat touches his arm. “As the man and the — little girl were.. disappearing.. _forced_ out by that energy —” He looks up. “Sunshine, can I.. talk to you alone?”

“Oh—”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Kat shakes her head. Alistair stares at Sunshine, like he knows something she doesn’t, or like he — he knows something they both know but Sunshine doesn’t want to admit. “What happened?”

The medium is shaking but doesn’t take his navy gaze off of Sunshine. “She turned to me.”

Kat presses her lips together. “Who turned to you?”

“The little girl.” He blinks slowly and his eyes flicker to her mother, then back to Sunshine. “She said..” Alistair hesitates, hanging his head and wiping the blood from his lips. He slowly lifts his head to Kat, glare unmoving. “Don’t. Trust her.”

“Don’t trust who—” Kat begins.

“ _Don’t_ trust..” Alistair stares at Kat. “Her.”

“Who..?” Sunshine has a horrible feeling she knows who it is, but doesn’t want to admit it. The medium sighs heavily and curls his fingers around the beads of the necklace. “She meant —” He definitely doesn’t want to say it. “She meant your mother.”

“What?” Kat just sounds confused and offended.

“Don’t trust her.”

“You — you’re crazy.” Her mother stands and waves her arms. Sunshine stays silent.

“Don’t trust her.”

“Okay, that is _not_ what she meant, you misunderstood.”

“ _Don’t_ trust her. Time —”

“Stop saying that!”

“—and time again. _Don’t_ trust her.”

The two glare at each other and Sunshine slowly backs away.

“No, you’re saying that!” Kat growls.

“I’m only channeling..”

“Mom, it’s okay, don’t freak out,” she murmurs.

“ _No_ , it’s not okay! You’re not only channeling, you’re coming in here to my home and accusing me, and scaring my daughter — you know what, we’re done, you’re out.”

“Mom!” Sunshine watches in shock as Kat pulls the front door open, motioning toward the front lawn.

“No! My house, my rules, _out_.”

He stands and makes his way toward the front door, but not before stopping by Sunshine. “ _Don’t_ trust her.”

“Get out.” Her mother glowers furiously at the man. Alistair lifts his coat and stares at Kat. “Go,” she snarls.

He walks outside and Kat slams the door on his back, locking it.

“Mom, you don’t have to overreact,” Sunshine sighs.

“I’m not overreacting,” she snaps back.

“You _were_.” She laughs lightly, but isn’t being funny.

Her mother doesn’t respond and stomps to her room.

“Well..” Sunshine faces the camera. “That didn’t go well.”  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don’t trust her


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LeMaster shares the dark history of a cult. Great. A cultist demon. What more could she ask for?

Sunshine’s not sure how she feels about the little medium situation that went down. Mom keeps referring to him as “the idiot guy.” That’s been... fun. Dealing with her, even more so.

Just when Sunshine was starting to think her mother was getting better.

On another note, she’s meeting up with the paranormal expert again soon — _LeMaster_. After that quickened, panicky voicemail she received from him, she’s a little apprehensive as to what he’s going to talk to her about. Something to do with the ghosts? Maybe he’s found a lead?

But why is she in grave danger?

Hopefully he’ll give her some good information.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Later that day, Sunshine is back in the park, swiveling her head around as she tries to spot the paranormal expert. She begins to walk forward toward LeMaster, keys jangling in her hand as she strides. He’s standing under a large oak tree, coral-orange sweater buzzing around her eyes. His hair is just as dorky as it was the last time, and he’s pacing around, clearly disturbed.

“Hey,” Sunshine calls. She blinks when LeMaster quickly rushes forward, an englarged picture of the bagged ghosts in his hands.

“Um,” he begins, voice shaky. He breathes in deeply, hands shaking. “Before I proceed, I — I need to know from you, full disclosure, is there anything you’re not telling me?” He looks — well, he looks worried and genuine. He’s much different from their last meeting.

“No.” Sunshine narrows her eyes slightly.

LeMaster doesn’t seem relieved. “Okay,” he breathes, swallowing. “I went to my guru and — I found some answers..” He trails off.

“Okay,” she urges gently.

The man touches his chest. “Can we sit down?”

“I — sure..” Sunshine raises a brow but joins him beneath the tree, settling upon the soft grass. LeMaster curls his fingers around the roots of the large trunk and trembles.

“I believe this photo..” He closes his eyes and turns the bagged family to Sunshine, trying to calm himself. “Is from.. an ancient order — a, a cult.”

“A — a _cult_?”

“The earliest, documented..” He sounds to be out of breath. “Evidence we have of this cult is from the late 19th century. The — the late 1800’s.” LeMaster wipes black hair from his face. “The, the, this cult — the name is a well-kept secret. It’s really just called.. ‘The Cult’ by those not in the know.”

Sunshine feels her spine tingle. Where is he leading with this?

“But what, but what they would do is, is they fear this demon, and — and this demon, they believe is.. is nurtured, and soothed by the sacrifice of a first-born daughter... in the family.” His gaze trickles with fear. “What they would do is they would put a bag over the daughter’s head — as, as a sacrifice offering to the demon — and, should the daughter survive, there was.. no curse, and the family is safe. Should.. the daughter _perish_.. the curse has been lifted from the family and the family is now safe for generations.”

She bends her head forward and rocks her face in her hands. This — this is where her ghosts came from? The little girl, Anna? She was — she was sacrificed so long ago? But what about the man? The father?

“In the 1930’s,” LeMaster continues, voice lower, “the press got a hold of the story and.. the police immediately became involved and, and made it their mission to stamp out the cult and put an end to the order. And they told the public that’s just what they did, it was squelched.”

He waves his hands in front of his body. “Well.. that was in the 1930’s. This photo —” LeMaster turns another picture around of a young girl swallowed by thick, heavy shadows. A pale white light illuminates her face. “Is from 1958. And again in ‘72.” He draws the paper back and shows another young girl sprawled out in the sunlight. His eyes water. “And finally.. 1989.” 

Sunshine’s lip quivers at the sight of the motionless, awkwardly-angled child on a tile floor, head bent backwards and hair a mess over her body. “O — oh my gosh,” she whispers.

“So — so it is my belief that the cult is still alive and thriving. They’ve just gotten better at hiding.” He inclines his head forward and pants.

“Yeah..?”

“Little girl.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “Does your mother know.. about these pictures?” 

“ _No_? Why —” She stumbles over her words and brushes brown hair back from her face. She can’t forget everything that — everything that’s happened, with her mom acting so weird and aggressive and freaking out and the medium and —

“You need to be honest with me, does your _father_ know?” He gazes at her with sharp, intent pools of amber.

“I don’t — I don’t like what you’re implying, my dad... isn’t.. around..”

He shakes his head slowly. “Okay. Okay, if you’re not gonna be honest with me there’s — there’s no further we can go.” LeMaster looks down and places the photos on his lap.

“I’m leaving,” she says, too shaken up to even trult argue. 

“Please,” he returns, widening his arms to his sides.

“Um. Yeah.” Sunshine turns and begins to walk away, but he stumbles to his feet.

“Wait,” LeMaster calls, walking toward her with concern. “Whether or not you believe.. does not mean this is real or not real. It _is_ real.” A pause. “I do not wish to be associated with this anymore, please do not contact me again. Goodbye.” He backs away, staring at her. “Goodbye.”

“O — Okay..” She watches him turn and quickly lumber off.

What the hell just happened?

Sunshine makes her way back to the car and numbly falls in to the seat, blinking slowly. “Okay, seriously,” she begins, annoyed. “What is he talking about? I am _not_ part of a cult.” She grits her teeth. “At all! Neither is my mom, my dad, I —”

She looks down and shakes her head. “He’s crazy. Did you see what he was wearing?” Sunshine inhales, trying to calm herself. “I’m not.. part of a cult..” She scrunches up her nose. Maybe she isn’t so convinced. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I have to get out of here.”

She’s about to jam the keys in the ignition before she freezes. Sunshine turns her head to the side and presses her eyebrows together. “I feel like somebody’s watching me,” she whispers, unnerved. “I — I’m getting out of here.”  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Sunshine gets back from the park and sees her mother’s car. She knows she needs to talk to her, but is a little apprehensive of what she will say. It’s not like Kat has been in a good mood for the past week and a half. Why would it change now?

This should be interesting.

She enters the house and spots her mother laying on the couch, a pillow tucked under her head and a colored blanket tangled around her legs. “Hey mom,” she greets. “Um, so I had my.. second meeting with.. _LeMaster_ today in the park.”

Kat wipes a hand over her face, rubbing her tired eyes. “Who..?”

“The paranormal... cult, expert, guy.” Sunshine sighs and sits on the couch across from her mother.

“What’s his name?” 

“LeMaster.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t really react.

“Yeah, he prefers it.” Sunshine rolls her eyes. “Over his girly name. So.”

Kat yawns and Sunshine throws her keys on the glass table.

“Anyways,” she continues, looking up at her mother, “he just, uh... kind of frightened me, told me some things about — about uh..” She bites her lip and watches Kat lift her body, facing Sunshine. “About a cult and.. he showed me, showed me dead little girls and..”

“What?” Mom’s eyes widen with shock.

“Yeah, um.” Sunshine shakes her head. “But uh..”

“Why did he show you pictures of dead little girls?”

“It had to do with the story or the.. cult thing, so.” Kat blinks harshly. “But anyways, he implied our family had something to do with it, and I was just wondering if you knew.. anything..”

“Had something to do with _what_?” Oh, there it is, the mom voice.

“The.. cult..?”

“That our family has something to do with the cult.” Kat looks unamused. 

“Yeah.”

“Well he’s a little cray-cray.” She scratches her nose.

“Mom... I’m serious.”

“I’m serious too!” She stares at Sunshine as her daughter doesn’t respond. “What? _Yes_ — our family, the family tree has a long... standing.. cult activity. I forgot to tell you about that. We die of cancer, we have heart failure, _and_.” She narrows her eyes. “Cult activity.”

“Okay. I didn’t know.” Sunshine throws her hands up in defense and Kat rolls her eyes. “You don’t know anything.” She walks away, grunting. “Seems she’s back to her cranky attitude.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think uncle tommy is arriving soon :o


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria has an idea.

Since LeMaster isn’t exactly being too helpful on the current situation, Sunshine is at a loss for what to do next. Her mother’s only gotten worse and Creepy Lady hasn’t shown up. She’s all alone in this mystery now, and it’s up to her to solve it.

How, though?

Well, obviously the worst thing to do: use a Ouija board.

She’s aware her viewers will be angry, and she’s aware this could end badly for her, but it’s her last resort. Clearly there’s no one left to aid her, so she has to take her own path right now.

If the medium was right... then perhaps there is a darker presence in the house. And perhaps she can speak to this presence through the board. That can work, right?

As Sunshine lifts the board and reads over the small white words covering the front, a soft but quick rapping on the door sends her to her feet. She tilts her head and pads toward the door, curiosity edging her on. 

“Hello?” She slides her body past the window and looks outside. For a moment it seems there’s no one there, until a gray cloak blinds her view and Creepy Lady is staring back at her with bleak brown eyes.

Sunshine blinks in surprise and opens the door, stepping back as the woman walks in. “Something’s wrong.”

“Okay.” She raises a brow as Creepy Lady stalks closer.

“Are you okay.” The woman’s voice almost takes on an accusatory tone. 

“Um...” Sunshine brushes brown hair from her face, biting her lip. She gives in to Creepy Lady’s protective glare. “No, not really. I mean.. things have gotten worse with mom and everything.”

The woman doesn’t respond and jerks her head in the direction of the Ouija Board, brows pressing together. “What are you doing with this?”

“Well, things —”

“Why do you have this?”

“Things have gotten worse!”

Creepy Lady grits her teeth. “You can _not_ use this. Tell me you will not use this. Put this away.” She bends down and grips the lid between her outstretched fingers. 

“Okay, okay, I won’t use it.” Sunshine crosses her arms as the woman picks up the picture of the bagged family.

“Why do you have this?” Her words are at a dangerous low. A shiver runs down Sunshine’s back.

“That’s my ghosts,” she responds slowly.

Creepy Lady looks almost sentimental for a second. She turns towards Sunshine and flicks black hair out of her face, breathing in. “Can you drive?”

“Yeah..”

“We need to go somewhere. I need to show you something.” The woman sets down the picture

“Uhhh, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with —”

“We need to go _right now_.”

“Okay, okay..” Sunshine shakes her head. _This_ should be fun.

The car ride to this mysterious place is quiet and awkward. Or, maybe it’s just awkward to Sunshine. Creepy Lady seems lost in her own head; she simply stares out of the window and makes small gestures on where to drive.

And now they’re here. A loose, winding trail snakes through a path, surrounded by a grove of trees that twist and curl overhead. Creepy Lady steps out of the car and stands at the path, facing toward the whistling branches and just... standing.

Sunshine has no idea where they are. She’s not sure she’s even ever been here before. But Creepy Lady is intent on hurrying and she doesn’t want to piss the woman off, even if she doesn’t really want to get out.

How many times has she met this woman again?

Creepy Lady comes over and knocks on the window with the edge of her finger. “Yeaaah..?” Sunshine asks, squinting against the sun.

“It’s time, we have to go.” 

“Are you sure..?”

The woman doesn’t even blink. “Yes.”

Sunshine sighs. “Okay, well.. let’s go, then.” She pauses. “What are we doing again?”

Creepy Lady leads the way through the bushes, not even bothering to follow the trail. “I have to lead you to the sacrificing.”

“The what? What was that?” Sunshine halts in her walk and stares at the woman. Is this— okay, what the hell is going on here? She’s suddenly very, very suspicious.

Creepy Lady whips around, clearly growing annoyed. “The _sacrifice_ sight,” she growls. 

“Okay, well...” Sunshine jogs to catch up with her. “I don’t think I’m very comfortable with that.”

“You must be.”

A pause. “Oh. Okay.”

Great.

They walk in silence and follow a flattened path of grass and woven weeds, bird chatter echoing around them. Sunshine looks around and presses her lips together. Hmmm. What to talk about with this strange, probably-witch woman? 

“So,” she begins, clearing her throat, “we’ve been uh. We’ve been, walking, for a while.”

No answer.

“Soooo...” Sunshine thinks, then her green eyes light up. “Do you have a real name?”

Creepy Lady, for once, looks amused. “Yes. I have a real name.” She smiles.

Sunshine beams. “That’s good.” 

“It’s..” The woman hesitates and looks down. “Victoria.”

“That’s pretty!” she chirps.

“Thank you.” Her face falls into a dead line once more.

“Yeah.” A hum. “So, uhh, where do you live?” A one-sided game of twenty questions is always fun.

Victoria glances over. “Around. I move.”

“O.. okay, cool.” Weird. That’s the only way Sunshine can describe this woman. Strange? Odd? Creepy— wait, maybe she shouldn’t call Victoria Creepy Lady anymore.

Sunshine stops and stares for a moment. Maybe she should get this question over and done with. “Are you... a Wiccan..?”

Victoria looks away, grunts, and continues moving. “I’m more than a Wiccan.”

“Oh. So... why are you helping me?”

“Because you need my help.” Yup, that’s the aggravated face. “I need to protect you, you need to be _safe_.”

Sunshine has vivid flashbacks to the first real encounter with Creepy La— Victoria. In December, she remembers it clearly. A knock on the door had stirred her forward and there Victoria had stood, uttering the words, “It’s not safe,” over and over again until she’d been screaming.

Fun memories.

“Okay,” is all she responds with. And it seems that, this time, it’s Victoria’s turn to ask a question.

“Why do you carry that thing around with you all the time?” She stares at the camera lens.

“I don’t know.” Sunshine shrugs. The answer seems to appease Victoria, more or less.

She looks over the teenager’s head. “You know you ask a lot of questions?”

“Yeah, my mom says that too —”

“Shh.” Victoria stops, feet kicking up gravel. Her eyes flicker around the vibrant forest.

“What?” Sunshine whispers.

She doesn’t look scared, despite the words she says. “The demon is watching us. We must move.”

Sunshine twists her head around to look, still quickly hurrying after Victoria. There’s nothing she can see, but maybe, if Creepy— ugh! — if _Victoria_ has more powers or motive than a Wiccan... she can sense things that would otherwise be impossible to see or tell?

Maybe that’s it.

The continued walk is fast but silent, much to Sunshine’s dismay. The trees begin to clutter together more and pools of honey-golden light ripple over the grass and undergrowth. The forest becomes laced with shadows as they travel deeper in. Sunshine can hear a stream father off in the distance.

Then, they arrive. A decrepit building, hardly standing, faces them. Sunshine gazes at it with uncertainty. Most of the walls have fallen and the roof is completely gone. Only stone lays beneath their feet, layered by wood and rocks. “What’s... this?”

Victoria wheels. “This is the sacrifice sight.”

“Okay..” Sunshine steps inside and examines the old, broken brick, running her fingers through the grooves. “Aaaanddd...?”

“That demon. That demon, that has been following you? He wants to cause you harm.” Her eyes widen as she looks at Victoria. 

“That’s not good,” she murmurs.

“No, it’s not.” The woman looks like this is hard for her to deliver. “There is something you must do.”

“Okay..?”

A short sigh. “You must sacrifice yourself.”

Sunshine splutters. “I must _what_? Is this part of the whole cult thing? Are you part of the cult?”

“No.” Victoria’s word is final. “No. I am _not_ part of that cult.” She looks disgusted, as if she can’t even comprehend someone thinking she’s involved.

She pauses and goes on. “But I know about your mother. I know that she is possessed. And if you don’t help me — if you don’t help _yourself_ — he won’t leave. He won’t leave her, he won’t leave your family. You need to do this.”

“But..” The words die down in her throat. Is her mother really possessed? That can’t — that can’t be true. How is that even possible? Maybe her viewers are right. Maybe she’s blind to the truth. Or maybe it’s all something orchestrated against her. 

That could be the case.

“Listen,” Victoria snaps. “You’re not — you’re not _literally_ going to sacrifice yourself. But I need you to make the demon think that you _are_ going to do it.” The woman nods along with her words. “That you _are_ going to sacrifice yourself. If you can do that, I will take care of the rest. I will banish the demon and help your family.”

“You’ll... banish it?”

“Yes.” She sounds sincere. 

Sunshine sighs loudly. “What if I don’t believe you?” She can’t help but hold those doubts close.

Victoria stares for a moment. “I have a way to make you believe. Your mother is possessed, and I have a test. A test that will make you see that this is true.”

“A test..? Can we just do it here, right now —?”

“No, no, we can’t do it here anymore.” Victoria narrows her eyes. “This sight... it’s no good, it’s too out in the open, people can see it, they know about it. And we have to come back another time. At _night_. And we have to go much deeper into the forest.”

Birds chirp high above. “Well that seems... safe. What is the test, though? For my — for my mom?”

The woman bites the inside of her cheek. “Let’s return back to the car. I’ll tell you on the way.”

Well. It looks like this is actually going to happen.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE HAVE LIKE 3 OR 4 MORE CHAPTERS UNTIL NOLAN I’M SO EXCITED


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine receives some bad news and decides to test her mother.

Sunshine really, really doesn’t feel okay. She’s really — she’s really upset. It throbs in her chest and poisons her mind and God, she can’t get away from it, she can’t get away from any of it. How did she go from being a normal, haunted (as normal as that can be) teenage girl to — to being a _cultist_? 

And now she has to decide whether or not she wants to be _sacrificed_ or have a demon-possessed mother for the rest of her life. Good options, right? Ugh. Why couldn’t Kat have just sacrificed her when she was a young child?

Maybe she should write down the pros and cons of each option. 

Sunshine grits her teeth. She’s annoyed. Part — part of a _cult_? Really? That’s what her life has come to? A cult? A _demon_? Seriously.

Oh. Victoria’s test — it’ll apparently help Sunshine face the truth of the situation. As if it isn’t horrible enough. She’s gonna try and give her mother the test as soon as possible, whenever she really can.

She’s a little comforted that shit like this really exists, so perhaps she’s not the only one with a possessed mom.

Sigh. She really needs the medium back. She believes Alistair now — maybe he’ll come back by, or give her some words of wisdom and share advice on what to do. Unlike _LeMaster_. 

Yeah. That’s a good idea. She should call him.

Sunshine purses her lips and flips out her phone, dialing the number. The ring muffles the speakers and tingles her senses and she grunts. She’ll be pretty annoyed if he doesn’t pick up. She wonders if he’ll know it’s her calling.

A woman’s voice splutters through. “Hello?”

She perks. “Hi! Is... Alistair there?”

There’s a drawn silence before the woman speaks again. Her voice breaks. “No. Alistair is not, here, um —” The woman crackles through the phone, voice low, raspy, and dripping with emotion. “..who is this..?”

“Sunshine,” she answers, biting the inside of her cheek.

“Oh, Sunshine, um —” The woman breathes in and cries out. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to tell you this but.. Alistair... passed away yesterday.”

Blood. It runs in her ears, pushing away any other thoughts. It drowns Sunshine in a pit of darkness that she can’t seem to crawl her way out of. Her eyes widen and she chokes. “He — he what?”

A sniff. “Alistair’s gone. He — he said that, that all of the hauntings you had told him about, and everything he had seen with you, it — it was just, it was just too much.”

Sunshine begins to shake.

“I’ve actually never seen him like that,” the woman croaks. “He — he couldn’t sleep, so he started taking sleeping pills because he was having nightmares, and..” The woman sobs. “He took too many. And, he, he’s gone now.”

Sunshine tries to return a heartfelt apology but she keeps speaking. “And I must tell you, you, you need to be careful, that’s what he said, that you need to be careful. Please please be careful.”

She doesn’t have an answer. Any words die down in her throat. Sunshine closes her eyes and pinches her nose, gasping in. “I — I’m sorry, I have to go, I’m sorry for your loss, I — goodbye.”

She hangs up the phone and the beep rumbles in her ears. A horrible, sickening feeling wrenches itself between her chest and grasps at her heart with curled, bony fingers. Sunshine cries out and falls to her knees, hands flattening over the carpet. The darkness consumes her mind and tears her open. Blood welts from her skin and she pierces her palms with her nails and sobs and sobs and sobs.

He died. He died. He died. He _died_. Because of her. Because Sunshine had convinced him to come. Because Sunshine hadn’t believed him and had let all of this happen. It’s all her fault.

Everything is too much right now. She can’t breathe. Her lungs ache with each breath and the oxygen is hardly filtering through her chapped lips. Sunshine drops the phone and drags herself forward, head falling on her arms. She curls up and the tears flow freely down her cheeks. Her gaze is blurry, clouded and everything looks like painted streaks along her vision.

“No,” she moans, knocking herself in the head with her fist. _Stupid, stupid, stupid. It’s all because of you. You let this happen. What — how — how did this happen? How did I let this happen? God, I can’t believe Alistair is dead. He’s dead. I let it happen. I should’ve done something sooner. I should have._

Sunshine — she hasn’t cried this hard in a long, long time. Everything is consuming her up and any hope is spit out and crushed. Her mother is practically gone. Might as well be dead. She’s not close enough to Victoria to feel any comfort from the woman. She — she doesn’t have _anyone_. Her father — what if, what if that man at the house had been him? What if Sunshine’s own dad had tried to kill her?

It hurts. It burns her heart and smolders it like crackling embers. She reminisces on her childhood. Of her old home, before all of this happened, back to when she awas little. Running through the green fields, honey sunlight pooling down on her, shattering the sky with beams of light. The shadows hadn’t consumed her then. She’d been _happy_. Now it’s all a facade. A mask. She can’t worry her viewers any more than they already are. She has to keep this to herself for as long as she possible can.

Losing her mother like this — it’s taken its toll. Sunshine can’t see the familiar, humorous reflection in her mom’s eyes anymore. They’re blank and dark, like something sinister swirls below. Maybe something does. Kat hasn’t been okay for weeks. Sunshine’s tried her best to deny it, but — but she can’t anymore. It’s time she faces the truth and bites the bullet. Victoria is right. She has to save her mother, the house, _herself_. Sunshine can’t go on like this. Not with the fear, with the strangling agony, with the anger and the rage bubbling deep underneath her chest.

She needs to bring her mother back. She needs things to go back to normal. Maybe the only way to do that is with this test. With this sacrifice. If Victoria can keep the demon away, then everything will be okay. Right? She — she really hopes so. But even if not, Sunshine has to _try_. She must. It’s her last hope.

It’s time to open her eyes.  
⠀  
⠀  
⠀  
Two days later. Two days pass with thinking and wondering and brooding. She’s a little embarrassed she lost herself like that when she found out that Alistair died, but she.. she’s okay now. She’s doing better, somehow. Getting all of those emotions out — it helped. It’s helping. Maybe crying isn’t so bad after all.

Now, she’s decided that she’s going to give her mother the test. Like, right now. This is her last hope. And if her mother _isn’t_ possessed then Sunshine will really be more worried.

But without LeMaster here, and with the medium.. dead.. there’s no one else to go to. She has to trust Victoria. She must.

“Hey mom,” she calls, perched in one of the living room chairs with her hair tied back, a white bow in her tangled. “Will you come here?”

Her mother walks out of the kitchen, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and jeans. “Hm?”

“Well, there’s this like, game thing that we learned in school and I thought it’d be fun to try.” Sunshine looks up as Kat swishes her arms around.

“A game thing?” she asks dubiously.

“Yeah,” Sunshine chirps.

“What do I have to do?” Her mother’s voice seems lighter than usual. Maybe she’s fine. Maybe Sunshine is overreacting to the situation.

Or maybe she’s not.

“Just, umm —” She slides paper and a pen towards Kat. “Write on this piece of paper.”

“Write, what do I write, a love letter?” Sunshine chuckles but can’t ignore the weird vibes she’s getting from her mother right now. Like this — like she’s not being truthful, or real, or like the demon only comes out when it wants to. Maybe it hasn’t truly shown itself yet.

“No,” Sunshine says, “it’s like a — a game, like..”

“Like MASH?”

“Yeah, like MASH, sure.” She purses her lips.

“Am I gonna find out who my husband is?” Kat grins.

“Yeah,” Sunshine laughs. “Okay, you ready?”

“I’m tired of being alone~”

She raises a brow. “Are you ready now?”

“Oh, yes.” Kat perches the pen between her fingers and lifts her hand over the paper in wait.

“Okay, so the first line is — just try to write the whole thing. It’s — it’s easy..” Sunshine bites her lip, unsure if she should say it. Will her mother believe — or, or will the _demon_ believe this is actually a ‘school game’?

Kat scoffs. “Yeah, how hard can it be? Alright, what am I writing?”

“ _To this world’s end_ ,” she begins, blinking down at her phone and the lines she’s reading from the possession test. 

“Is this gonna be Latin or something?” Kat begins to write.

“No.” Sunshine rolls her eyes, but feels like a rock is sinking into her belly. Anticipation and — and fear. 

“Okay,” her mother quips when she’s finished writing the first sentence.

“Next line..”

“Mhm.”

“ _I am me and me alone_.”

Her mother is silent for a moment. “So, I just.. write that right here?”

“Yeah.” Sunshine watches Kat intently, eyes trailed on her hand. She laughs to play it off, hoping her mother is just being dumb. “Really easy.”

“Waiting for the complicated part, okay.” Kat begins writing in larger lettering. “I.. what is it?”

“ _I am me_.” She narrows her gaze. “ _And me alone_.”

Her mother writes slower and slower, and the words seem to jutter off the page. Since when has Kat had such — such large handwriting? “Okay..”

“And the last — err, there’s two more, sorry — next one is _With faith_..” Sunshine glances up at her mother’s stare, a confused expression but.. it’s laced with something darker. Something knowing.

“Kay, what?”

“It’s just _With faith_ , Mom.”

“Okay.” Her mother looks down and her hands curl around the pen tightly. She presses down on the paper with the entire force of her hand. The letters become shaky and largely curl outward. It’s almost like she can’t write it. Kat keeps ripping her hand off of the page and hesitating, before returning to writing the sentence.

Sunshine’s afraid the paper’s gonna tear in half.

Her mother breathes out and pulls the pen closer. “Okay, what?”

“It’s — it’s the same thing, Mom. _With faith_.” Her voice shakes and her throat begins to burn. Sunshine forces the tears down. “You can do it.”

Her mother sighs. “It — it’s like a, a joke?”

“No.” Sunshine forces herself to chuckle. “You’re fine. It’s just part of it.”

Kat places her other hand on her wrist, twisting the bones underneath cruelly.

“Mom..” Sunshine stares at the pen that’s being forcefully slammed down on the paper. She can hardly write.

“I don’t understand,” Kat whispers in a soft, raspy breath. She is able to finish the words, but her hand is trembling and her knuckles are turning white. Veins are popping out from her clenched arms. It’s scary. Terrifying.

“And the last line,” Sunshine murmurs tentatively, “is _I cast out all who possess me_.”

Kat’s hand begins to shake violently, tremors running up and down her flesh.

“Mom?” She blinks up at Kat. Unless, unless this isn’t Kat anymore. This could be the demon to, the demon she’s talking to right now. Sunshine repeats the sentence, the final one, and prays her mother can finish it. She loses most of her hope when Kat’s ‘I’ slides downward and off the page.

Her mother drops the pen and holds her wrist close to her chest, breathing harshly. “Mom. Finish.” Her voice is hard, but Sunshine is pleading. She needs her mother to do this.

“No.” Kat’s voice comes out small.

“Mom.”

Her mother runs her hands down her pants and rubs her palms together.

“Mom. Mom, you can do it.” She laughs nervously.

“I can’t.” Her words are croaky and Sunshine, she, she can’t even hear her mother in there. It’s not her mother. It’s not.

“Mom, yes you can.” A desperate edge slithers into her words.

“I think I..” Kat chokes on the air. “I think you have to write it.” She pushes the paper away.

“Mom, I can’t. You have to finish.”

“I don’t think I can.” Her mother jumps up and rushes around the table, back to the kitchen and to the foot of the stairs. “I’m sorry.”

“Mom!” Sunshine watches as Kat walks away, footsteps receding into the distance. She slowly reaches for the paper and pulls it forward, eyes watery. The sentences — they just, you can _see_ that she struggled, you can see the way the pen pressed and the way her hand slipped with each word.

She cries.  
⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well. now we know who’s possessed


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Tommy makes an appearance.

Sunshine was finally able to convince her mother to see the doctor.

After that little experience the other day — yeah, no, she wasn’t risking anything else happening. Sunshine didn’t forget what the medium — god, the _dead_ medium — had said earlier, either. And he was literally, like, deceased. Because of her house.

She felt terrible, but no one needed to know that.

Anyway, back to Mom. All the tests had came back as negative. Or... not positive..? Either way, Sunshine isn’t buying it, because how would a doctor find out if someone’s possessed?

But uh, yeah, her mother really isn’t doing well. As literally all of her subscribers have seen. And that being said, Sunshine is wondering if she should do the sacrifice, like Creepy Lady suggested. Really, the only thing that could go wrong is that Sunshine dies or something but, then again, would it really be that terrible? Her life is just going downhill at this point, so it seems like a win-win situation.

Still... she’s not sure. Like, she wants to. She does. But trusting Creepy Lady — ugh, _Victoria_ , she’ll never be able to remember that damn name — is hard. Trusting _anyone_ is hard. Because if she can’t trust her own mother... why would she believe in anyone else?

As Sunshine explains this all to the camera she jumps at a sharp rap on the door. She raises a brow and stands slowly, stumbling over her words. She’s not really expecting visitors.

God, if it’s Victoria —

Sunshine gasps when she gets to the screen door. She grins like a little kid and jumps up and down, eyes wide. “Uncle Tommy!” Her voice raises in pitch and she feels her heart leap into her throat with excitement.

She was lying. _This_ is someone she can trust.

“Hey, kiddo!” Uncle Tommy says, smirking as Sunshine opens the door. He has short brown hair and a round, plump face, and looks to be in his early 30s. He’s wearing a green shirt and plaid blue shorts because why not? He has kind blue eyes and a smile that’s always contagious, and is probably, like, 40% gay.

God, she missed him. So, so much.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Good, how’re you doin’?”

“Good.” She lies right through her teeth but ignores the pang, because Uncle Tommy is here, _Uncle Tommy is here_ and it’s going to be a good day, Sunshine just knows it.

Oh.

Right.

So, who _is_ Uncle Tommy?

“Alright everybody on YouTube.” Sunshine motions toward Uncle Tommy, who is current sitting on the couch beside her. “This is Uncle Tommy.”

He waves. “Hello YouTube.”

Sunshine squeals with happiness. “Isn’t he exciting?” He laughs and she continues on. “So, I asked Uncle Tommy to come.”

Yeah, okay, so she’d said she couldn’t trust anyone, that was true. But seeing Uncle Tommy in person was different from writing him. Now she knew she wasn’t alone. Now she knew that people were actually here for her... because she honestly hadn’t been expecting Uncle Tommy to even come, and the fact that he had come, that he was here _right now_ was just amazing to her.

Did she mention how much she loves him?

He looks at her and nods. “Yeah, you sent me an email.”

“I did.” She smiles and plays with her braided hair, having to do _something_ with her jittery hands.

“And I showed up!”

“He showed up.”

He laughs. “You seem surprised.”

“I was a little bit actually,” she admits with a chuckle. “I didn’t actually think you would come.”

“You didn’t actually think I would come?”

“I don’t know!” She can’t stop the grin from lifting her cheeks because she realizes how stupid she’d sounded. Mental check to apologize to herself for her self torment. “I — I like — have you _seen_ the stuff..?”

“Yeah, well, I mean I watch most of ’em, I didn’t watch your vacation and...” He laughs again. “But, yeah, is your — is your mom really as bad as it seems?”

Sunshine’s grin fades away and she becomes serious, the dread suddenly weighing heavy in her heart. “Worse, actually, than it seems on YouTube.”

Uncle Tommy looks genuinely worried. “That’s not good.”

“Mm-mm.” She shakes her head. “She uh... won’t let me film a lot of it, which, y’know, I think is reasonable, but.. still.”

He sighs. “So what’s she — acting like?” 

“She just kinda like zones out, and she like, is always tired and most of the time just kinda..” Sunshine trails off.

“That’s out of character for her.” Uncle Tommy furrows his brows.

“Yeah. It’s — it’s really concerning, but the doctor said that everything’s fine or whatever, so.” She pauses. “Oh! So we should probably tell them who you are, other than Uncle Tommy!” Sunshine motions toward the camera.

Good subject change, anyway.

He looks startled for a moment then beams. “Hi,” he says, wheezing out a laugh.

“Who...?”

“Is not actually your uncle.”

“No.” Sunshine shakes her head and smiles. “Not at all.”

“No, I grew up with her mom, actually, we’ve been friends forever and..” He looks at her. “Just been there since you were a wee little one.”

“Wee little one, yes. And where are you from?” she asks knowingly.

“Uh, well, I’m originally from here but I’ve uh... been living in Sydney, Australia.”

Sunshine waves her hands. “Ahh!!”

“It’s _awesome_ —”

“I’m kinda jealous.”

“— _so_ awesome.”

“I am.”

“Right, you’re gonna have to come some time.”

“I will have to —”

Sunshine’s heart leaps in her throat when a loud clang jolts her from her enthusiasm. Uncle Tommy snaps his head to the side and the sound of banging metal echoes through the house, ringing in her ears.

“Uh.” Sunshine doesn’t know what to say. “What was that?” Stupid question, because she already knows the answer.

“It sounds like it’s coming from the kitchen.” Uncle Tommy stands up and Sunshine follows.

“Welcome to my haunted house.” She grips the camera and follows Uncle Tommy, peering over his shoulder into the kitchen.

“Whoa.” He stops dead in his tracks when he sees plates strewn all over the tile floor, pieces of white glass spinning over the slick ground. 

“Okay.” Sunshine grumbles and looks around.

“So, is it always this bad?”

“Uhhh.. no, I think it’s just worse cause they don’t like you.”

Uncle Tommy looks at her.

Maybe she shouldn’t have said that.  
⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀  
So. Uncle Tommy is trying to talk to her mother, and it’s really not going awesome.

“Remember when we went to the town fair and rode on the tilt-a-whirl after we had corn dogs and just.. got sick and.. hurled everywhere?” He laughs encouragingly as he sits beside Kat’s outstretched legs, observing the blanket curled around her shivering body.

“Do you remember that Mom?” Sunshine looks at Kat but she doesn’t even move. Her eyes are unblinking as she clasps her hand to her forehead, staring past Uncle Tommy and outside the window.

“Or... when we snuck out to the movies that night? We went and saw — oh, it was a _horrible_ movie what was it — hmm...” Sunshine guesses he knows the name but is trying to get Kat to say _something_. He snaps when she makes no move to speak. “Flintstones... Movie! Remember, with Rosie O’Donnell in it, and..”

“Mom..?”

“Remember it, Kat?”

She tilts her head and stares at Uncle Tommy, then her dark eyes flicker to Sunshine. Those eyes scare her. “Do — do you remember it, Mom?”

Kat doesn’t respond and goes back to absently staring over the backyard.

“And then — and then there was that time when we — you know, uh.. built that bridge? Terabithia?”

Sunshine tries to laugh to ease the grief tearing at both family members. “Haha, don’t you remember Mom?”

“Come on, Kat..” Uncle Tommy looks at her pleadingly, but she only covers her eyes with the back of her hand.

“We were gonna go to dinner, Mom,” Sunshine continues, glancing at Uncle Tommy. “Do you wanna — do you wanna come? Uncle Tommy came all the way here from.. Sydney, and he..”

“Seventeen hours on a plane,” he confirms, trying to smile at his old friend.

Still, no reaction.

“He really just wants... dinner.”

Uncle Tommy looks at Sunshine and shakes his head, frowning deeply. They step away from Kat and she can feel the tears burning at the back of her eyes. She hates this feeling — this helplessness, this heartbreak. She wants to claw the pain away, goddamnit.

But...

Maybe she can. Maybe there’s a way to do that, the answer that’s been sitting in front of her this entire time.

“I think... I’m gonna go find Victoria.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait but life’s been busy owhateva anyway i’m back and ready for nolan
> 
> anyway YAY UNCLE TOMMY TO THE RESCUE!


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The exorcism.

So. It’s been decided.

Sunshine’s gonna go to the forest with Victoria, at night, and do the ritual. She’s trying to trust her, and trust that it will all go well for once in her life. Victoria hasn’t let her down so far, so maybe this is the right thing to do.

She’s weighed the pros and cons. She’s spent nights staring at the ceiling, wondering if she should truly do this sacrifice.

Well. Fake sacrifice.

But she wants to. She _needs_ to.

Uncle Tommy doesn’t need to know, for now. Sunshine’s leaving him a note to tell him where she’s going. And, uh, a note for her mom.

It’s kind of sappy.

_“I know you got lost in the middle there a little bit, but when you find your way back, you’ll find me.”_

It’s enough of a goodbye if she really does die.

Which.

Hopefully she, like, won’t. It would be hard to post videos otherwise.

God, she’s doing it.

Here goes nothing.  
　　　  
　　　  
　　　  
Sunshine meets up with Victoria in the middle of the forest. The clearing is swathed by swaying bushes and patches of daisies crunch beneath her shoes. The setting sun dapples the sky in blue and yellow, long navy fingers dripping over the horizon. She sets the camera up and squints, ignoring Victoria’s raking behind her.

The weight of the situation really sinks in. She’s doing this. She’s doing this, and she’s going to save her mother, if it’s the last damn thing she does.

That’s worth something, at least, right?

As far as Sunshine can tell, the plan is to start the ceremony when it gets dark, and when the demon comes out and tries to — y’know, _attack_ her — Victoria will banish it, back to.. somewhere. She’s not sure. Doesn’t really care.

As long as it’s gone for good.

She knows she’s taking a leap of faith here, and she still isn’t sure why Victoria is so intent on helping her, but she supposes it’s a good thing? Without her, Sunshine would be... well, she probably would have messed things up worse with the Ouija Board. And other various things.

But, Victoria will know what to do. Right? Yeah, definitely.

Sunshine breathes out and thinks back to the beginning of everything, back to when she and her mother had first moved in, back to when her only worry was the floating unicorn.. now it’s all behind her. Now she’s here.

Wherever that is.

The sun eventually dips below the treeline and an inky black shadow blankets the world. The rain begins to pour right about now, much to Sunshine’s dismay. It ruffles her hair and gets in her eyes, and she tramples around the damp clearing in hopes of finding Victoria.

Who seems to have wandered off. That’s great.

Sunshine moves in front of the camera, carefully placing an umbrella over it. She jumps when Victoria appears from the side of the foliage, dress soaked in water.

“Wish me good luck.”

She turns when Victoria orders her to kneel down, a white bag in hand. Sunshine’s uncertain gaze flickers from side to side before she grudgingly complies, legs buckling beneath her. Mud soaks her jeans but she hardly cares at this point.

She’s scared.

“We must begin immediately.” Victoria shoves the bag over her head and Sunshine loses her breath. “This is very important!”

Her hands instinctively fly up to rip the bag off until she realizes this is part of the ceremony. She gulps and shakes as a cold wind passes by, causing goosebumps to shiver down her arms.

Maybe it’s not just the wind.

“I need you to be still,” Victoria continues, words drowned out by the rain. “And do not remove this bag until somebody removes it for you, okay?” Her voice cracks as she slowly stands behind Sunshine, droplets trickling down her face.

“Wait, who’s gonna remove it?!”

“I cannot tell you who, that is unpredictable! You _have_ to trust me, okay?” Victoria touches her shoulder.

Sunshine begins to cry. “I’m — I’m not —”

“I’m the only one that can keep you safe!” Victoria trembles and stumbles off to the side, sucking in through her teeth. “I need you to recite those words for me.”

“NOW?”

“Now!”

Sunshine’s voice wavers between the lightning cracking high above, flashes of white dancing over the forest. _“I kneel before you with the gift of my soul. Keep my family safe from your evil ways. Take me now but keep my family safe..”_

Victoria picks up a rusted, curled knife and looks around the clearing, heart pounding in her chest. 

_“..for all the rest of their days,”_ Sunshine finishes under the white cloth, hesitating. “Can I get up?” 

“No!” she snaps back. 

Then, a dark shape shuffles in from the side. Victoria grips the blade tightly, knuckles turning white. The demon almost looks red in the pale moonlight, back hunched and neck elongated to show sharp teeth. It’s Sunshine’s mother, but, but it _isn’t_. 

Her face is pale, and her eyes sink back into her head, bringing out the black circles around. Sharp claws stick out from her fingers and fangs glisten as lightning crackles overhead. 

The demon makes a move toward Sunshine but Victoria rushes forward, waving the blade. She begins to speak, holy words wavering but eventually reaching the ears of the demon. It screams and hisses, turning and running back into the darkness. 

“Is — is it gone?” Sunshine whimpers, head bowed and eyes screwed shut. 

“No.” Victoria sprinkles salt around the grass. “But it will be back.” 

The shape unexpectedly leaps from the shadows and hurls itself at Victoria. She gasps and cries out when the demon’s claws shred her skin. Blood pools from her arm and she loses the blade somewhere in the mess, then her throat becomes sticky and stings with itching pain. She realizes the demon has cut her throat. 

She staggers back over to Sunshine and ignores the girl’s frantic questioning. Victoria chokes and holds her neck, tears dribbling down her cheeks. Her screams slowly fade away and Sunshine begins to hyperventilate. “Victoria?!” 

No answer. Just pouring rain. 

Sunshine stays silent for another agonizingly long fifty seconds, sobbing into the cloth and blubbering out apologies. She’ll never be able to tell Uncle Tommy goodbye, or share last words with her mother. She’s going to die. She doesn’t want to die. Please, please, if there is a God, don’t let her become a victim of the cult, too. 

The bag is suddenly ripped off of her head without warning. She gagges and gasps for air, hands fumbling when she’s shoved to the ground. Sunshine freezes when she hears a familiar yet terrifying voice. It cuts through her mind like a dull blade and she nearly screams at the sight. 

“Your spirit is too strong,” the man spits, eyes narrowed through the haze. Sunshine thinks back to the abandoned house in the middle of the woods, about the man that had chased her, and who — who she’d hit with the car, and — and — 

Who might be her father. 

“The demon cannot take you,” he continues, voice hard and heavy. “You are _safe_!” 

“Who are you?!” she yells, rising to her feet. 

“It doesn’t matter who I am!” he growls, whipping around to glare at her. “You’re a Luiseach. We have no power over you. Do not try to contact your father.” 

“My father?!” Her heart leaps. This — this man knows who he is? 

(And thank God this man _isn’t_ her dad.) 

“No good will come of it. _None_!” The man turns and leaves Sunshine confused and terrified. 

Then, she remembers. 

“Victoria?” Her voice rings through the empty forest, sobs wrenching from her throat. “Victoria!” She’d heard screams and spluttering, and now her friend is gone, and nothing is making any sense. “ _Victoria_!” 

Her voice goes raw from screaming and she loses hope. Victoria is gone. Everyone is gone. She’s alone. She’s _alone_. 

Then — then a voice. And her head snaps up, eyes widening, and she nearly runs toward the dark shape for comfort. “MOM!” 

“Where are you?!” 

“Mom!” She sobs out of fear and joy when Uncle Tommy and her mother come into view, holding her hands and asking if she’s alright. She can’t answer, no words will come out of her mouth, so she just cries. 

“Are you hurt?” Her mother holds her face and Uncle Tommy looks frantic. “No, look at me. Please, are you alright?” Sunshine can’t answer and Kat holds her daughter, crying along with Tommy. “You’re okay. You’re okay. Alright?” 

“Let’s get her back to the car,” Uncle Tommy says, and Kat nods. The three stumble out of the clearing, tears fresh and hearts torn open. 

Only the rusty blade remains behind.  
　　　 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that was fun


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine, Kat, and Uncle Tommy share stories after the exorcism.

So, that happened.

She’s recovering, more or less. Everyone’s okay. Everyone’s fine. I mean, she’s not okay. Definitely not. But physically, sure. Mentally? On the downside. 

Not like _that’s_ new or anything.

She’s not sure what to think of it all. Sunshine’s looked back over the footage more times than she can count and it just — none of it makes sense. Well, it does. Kind of. But not really.

It’s a little weird, the shift of energy in the house. It’s not as dark, not like before, when her mother had been... well, under the influence of a demonic force (She really doesn’t want to say the word). Uncle Tommy is still here, thank God, and he’s really helping out. Her mother is happy again. Just like old times, and it makes her heart swell, truly. 

Everything is finally going back to normal, and it’s all she’s ever wanted.

But, well, about the video. Y’know. Sacrifice sight thingy. Anyway, she feels... there’s not really a word for what she feels. It’s like a heavy lump in her stomach. Like, like a fat man sitting on her chest. 

Sunshine remembers when she stood up and the bag was taken off, clearly Victoria was — well, gone — but then she rewatched the footage and her throat was kinda, um, yeah. Slashed? It was a very bloody and frightening sight, and looking at it brings her back to that place, to the rain drizzling over her body and the screams whipping through the wind behind her.

She’d gone back, though. For some reason the weird dagger-knife thingy was gone. But Victoria wasn’t there. In fact, there was no trace of the excorcism at all. Anyone stumbling by would just admire the beauty of the clearing.

Sunshine, well. All she can think of it is darkness. She never wants to return, and never will.

So. Yeah. Victoria is gone. She hasn’t been passing by the house or anything, either. Sunshine wants to find her, but she isn’t even sure where to start. No last name, no given address, no known family... it’s dead ends everywhere. 

And there’s still that other lingering option, but Sunshine really, really doesn’t want to think of that.

Victoria can’t be dead, right?

Well. Time to move on.

The demon — she’s pretty sure the demon had decided to take on the form of her mother because that’s.. who he was — that damn word, you know it, so his human form looked a lot like her. That was equally creepy, seeing Kat’s face morphed like that, but she knows it wasn’t really her mother. She’s not scared, not anymore.

Thank God.

Lastly, well, Creepy Guy. She has a lot of questions about him that she needs to answer, but just like Victoria, doesn’t know where to begin. Like, at all.

What _does_ she know, though? He’s the same guy from the abandoned house that she’d gone to alone a few weeks back. Very crazy. Insane and disturbing. That’s why she’s calling him Creepy Guy. But she still wants to know why he was at the site. Does he have something to do with the cult? Why does he know so much about her father? That’s — weird. Definitely weird. He kept talking about him, like he knew him.

Shit. Maybe he does.

And, most of all, why did he call her that word? _Luiseach_? That must mean something, but she’s not really sure. Sunshine will have to do some digging. Later. Not right now. She still needs to recover and get all of that ghost nonsense out of her mind.

Relaxing.

Ah. Sounds really, really nice.

Oh, why the hell not?  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
Uncle Tommy is leaving.

But uh, they’re sharing stories on the back porch. At least, her mom and Uncle Tommy are. Sunshine smiles as she listens along, partly because these tales are amusing, but also because she’s so happy to have her real mother back.

It’s refreshing. Those months had been dark. Now, everything feels light. Even the day is crystal clear and the soft breeze feels nice brushing against her skin.

Warmth. It floods her senses.

“So, how are you guys all feeling?” Sunshine questions, crossing her legs and gazing at her two family members. Or, one family member. One, technically not, but he’s still counted as one.

“Oh, us?” Kat points to Uncle Tommy and herself.

“Everybody else too!” Sunshine quips, waiving her hand across the empty backyard.

Her mother rolls her eyes. “I thought you meant them.” She raises a brow at the camera and slouches back in the lawn chair. 

Uncle Tommy laughs. “All the people out,” he jokes.

Sunshine snickers along, gazing across the other side of the vacant glass table. “Rick, Moe, scoot over.”

“Yeah.” Kat shrugs but grins. “I feel _good_.”

Who wouldn’t, after being —? Okay, okay. _Possessed_. She’s finally getting over it all. No judging.

“Good,” Uncle Tommy agrees, nodding. “I feel like I came at a pretty crazy time in your life.”

“Yeah you did.”

“A lil’ bit,” Kat snorts. “Nothin’ like drama for Uncle Tommy.”

“Yeah. A — normal.. situation.” Uncle Tommy takes his drink in one hand.

“Always happens with us.”

“We’re just, always, hectically crazy,” Sunshine continues, wiggling her eyebrows.

“How are you feeling?” Her mother looks at her with the mom eyes and Sunshine presses her lips together into a soft smile.

“I am good,” she replies, slowly. “I was a little — what’s the word I’m looking for — hesitant..? To.. talk about it more? But I’m better now, so. Yeah.” A pause. “Uncle Tommy leaves tomorrow.” She mimicks a dog whimpering.

“I don’t think you should leave,” Kat jokes, brushing a hand through her auburn hair.

“Okay,” he agrees.

“Okay, I’ll just stay.” Sunshine wheezes.

“You came all this way. You should stay longer.” Kat looks at him.

“I have to get back for a little while at least,” he says.

“Don’t you have like a job or something? To keep you living there?” Sunshine smirks.

“Yeah. Whatevs.”

“I don’t have one, it’s fine. McDonalds is always hiring.”

He laughs. “Maybe I’ll sell shirts, too.”

She gasps. “Yeaaah!”

Kat smiles. “It’ll say Uncle Tommy.”

“So!” Sunshine claps. “Do you have any imparting wisdom? For the little YouTubers?”

“Uh oh. Remember they’re young,” her mother banters.

“Let me give some good amazeball wisdom here.” Uncle Tommy sits up and breathes out dramatically. “Really, it’s just, you know, make sure that Sunshine is — okay. And if she — y’know —”

“Isn’t,” she snorts.

“ _Isn’t_ ,” he smiles, “or if I miss a video and somethin’ horrible happens — email me. Let me know so I can —”

“Wait, _who_ email you?” Kat cuts in.

“You want everybody to have your email?”

He points to both females. “You email me, you email me.”

“You just wanna give your email address out there?” Kat cocks a brow and waves her hand to the camera.

“You know what, I don’t care, if it keeps you safe, yeah, yeah.” He smiles and leans back, letting the rays of light spray over his face.

“That’s.. weird, but I’ll think about putting that in the little box down below. Maybe.” She shrugs. 

“It’s just so weird to me how this whole thing has come so full circle.” His lips twitch. 

“What do you mean?” Kat asks.

“Well, just — how, you were so into the paranormal when we were kids and stuff.”

“ _Me_?” her mother laughs.

“ _You_ were into the paranormal?” Sunshine grins. Oh, _this_ is entertaining.

“Yes,” Uncle Tommy says, while Kat denies it at the same time

“Oh, _please_!”

“ _Whaaat_?”

“You were _totally_ into this stuff!” He sets his glass down and looks at her, blown away. “You told me the _aliens_ abducted you!”

Kat waves her hand and Sunshine bursts out in shocked laughter. 

“You — do not even pretend!” he goes on.

“No! No, he’s a little dramatic,” Kat argues, trying not to smile.

“You _told me_ they spoke to you in their _alien language_!”

Sunshine gasps, wheezing. “No you didn’t!” Kat rolls her eyes. “Oh, man.”

“He’s — being dramatic.” She looks away, amused.

“She is so lying to you!”

Sunshine smirks. “So, do you believe in it now?”

Kat tilts her head from side to side. “Aliens? No.”

Uncle Tommy cracks up.

“I’m not — I mean, the paranormal, woman.”

“Obviously! Yes.” Again... whole possessed thing.

“You know, when I really noticed the big change in you,” Uncle Tommy begins, “was after you got back from your, uh, little disappearing act you did there.”

Sunshine chokes. “Her what?”

Uncle Tommy’s eyes widen. “She hasn’t told you?” Kat shakes her head in the background and kicks his knee.

“You were gone for two years!” he exclaims.

Sunshine’s jaw drops.

“Your mom disappeared for two years,” he tells her. “She never told you that, hm. Little story for ya.”

Kat looks at an invisible watch. “I think you need to go back to the airport.”

“Yeah, she was gone for two years and then showed up on my doorstep one day with a little one-year-old baby, guess who that was?”

Her mother leans her head back and groans.

“My twin,” Sunshine whispers.

“Not your twin,” Uncle Tommy laughs.

“Are you _serious_?” she asks incredulously. “What?! Mom, where were you?”

She waves her hand and doesn’t reply.

Sunshine gasps. “This is when you joined the cult! You’re a cultist!”

Uncle Tommy laughs and Kat grunts. “No, enough about the cult! No.”

“You and Tom Cruise,” he says.

Her mother sighs. “No, I met a boy—”

“Ooo, boy.” Sunshine smirks.

“Bad decisions.”

“Welcome to the club.” She leans back.

Kat raises a brow. “But I got _you_ out of it.”

“Oh, yay!”

“So, there was that.”

“Speaking of _bad decisions_ , are you gonna stay away from the paranormal stuff now?” Uncle Tommy stares at her.

“Maybe a lil’ bit,” Sunshine shrugs. “You know, back off a bit.” She hesitates. “But I wanna find out what I am.”

“What you are?”

“The — the word he used! The — thing, the — Louis — Loochichi...”

“Honey..” Kat shakes her head.

“I think it was, um, Luisecheach,” Uncle Tommy adds.

Sunshine laughs and Kat snorts. “I think it was crazy. But, I don’t think you need to worry about it honey.”

“Was I a _drug baby_?!”

“You were not a drug baby,” she grumbles. “I just blocked it out.”

“Why??”

“It — because! It was a crazy time. I was very young, there was a lot going on, I did not _disappear_.”

“You — oh, my God.” Uncle Tommy rolls his eyes.

“You did!” Sunshine backs.

“No! You guys all knew where I was —”

“There are so many stories that your mom has not told you, and you know who’s going to? This guy, Uncle Tommy, right here.”

“I was seventeen —”

And they continue with their ramblings until the sun sets, and good faith is returned to all of their hearts.

Everything is great.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y’all. part 3 is finally over. NOLAN TIME!


	34. ✧ PART FOUR ✧

PART FOUR  
 _Season Four_

**A strange guy tries to help Sunshine understand what she is.**

**A “Luiseach.” Whatever that is.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone new makes an appearance. Shame he couldn’t have come _before_ Mom’s possession.

It’s September of 2011 and Sunshine is wondering what she wants to do next.

Well, after the whole possession thing she’s not too sure if she should even be debating on what to explore. But, c’mon, her life is _boring_ without the spirits, and she knows her fans want more. But what, exactly?

So, options are:

a) stay away from the paranormal like a good girl

b) go investigate some haunted house or something, but that’s a little cheesy, even for her

c) go on some awesome trip to Hawaii or London or something cool, except neither she or her mother have the money for something like that

Well. It seems like she has to stay here, huh?

Oh. Also, she’s been thinking about her dad. Like, a lot. Which maybe isn’t a good thing, but Sunshine can’t help it. After what Creepy Guy said at the sacrifice site and the address in her mom’s cupboard (why did she have that, anyway?), she just — she needs to know more.

There’s so many unanswered questions. She feels like he knows something about her, or at least knows she _exists_ , but then why hasn’t he visited her? And Creepy Guy said that it would be a bad idea to contact her father. Why? No good for her, or no good for Creepy Guy? Or maybe he’s bad, or part of the cult, or even a Luiseach like she’s supposed to be.

Maybe he knows about the demon.

Either way, she’s determined to figure it out, if it’s the last damn thing she does.  
⠀ ⠀  
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⠀ ⠀  
She turns on the camera and is immediately curious as to what the hell is going on right now.

Her mom’s outside talking to some random guy she’s never met, but it sounds like she’s just yelling at him. Then again, Sunshine doesn’t feel that bad, because if he’s, like, a sketch fan then he deserves to be shooed away.

“There’s no demon in the walls!” her mother snaps, and Sunshine raises a brow because already this conversation is weird.

Great.

Through the screen door she can see the guy — he’s a teenager and looks to be about her age, with fluffy brown hair sweeping over his head. His face is elegantly shaped and his eyes are kind enough, and she sort of likes his soft, wavering, and pleading voice. Well... she’ll admit, it’s a little pathetic, and the black leather jacket is a bit of a turn off.

Probably a freak. Yep.

“ _Okay, random guy. He’s arguing the point that I have demons_ ,” Sunshine casually commentates. “ _Mom’s wearing purple_.”

“Annnnd I’m ready to help, and—” he continues.

“ _He’s ready to help_.”

“I am not _comfortable_ —”

“ _Mom doesn’t want him to_.”

“I don’t _know_ you!” her mother exclaims.

“ _Mom doesn’t know him._ ”

“Now someone’s figured out where we live.”

“Okay—”

“You think that makes me feel comfortable?”

“ _Mom’s not comfortable._ ”

“Well — it, it was a simple matter, it’s not difficult,” he explains, waving his hands, “you just triangulate—”

“No! That does not make me feel better! Am I gonna have other _random_ people showing up, on my doorstep?”

“What I’m saying is — it’s okay, believe me—”

“Mom?” Sunshine walks out, narrowing her eyes at the two. This should be interesting.

Kat turns around. “Sunshine, I’m dealing with it, go inside.”

The weird dude points at her. “Are you Sunshine?”

“What, you haven’t seen the videos?!” her mother exclaims, clearly exasperated. “You don’t _know_ who she is? You are crazy!”

“Look, all I — I’m just trying to help—”

“No.” Her mother turns and slams the screen door behind her. “Just go.”

“Mom!” Sunshine complains.

“I think that — please,” he begs, “let me — I’ll be very, I will — why don’t we stand — I think she might be the Luiseach!”

Kat shuts the door and locks it, sighing as she leans against the door. 

“Well... that was.. unproductive,” Sunshine grunts.

“He figured out where we live,” her mother says, clearly distrusting of the dude.

“Well, it’s not _that_ hard, he said something about triangulating and.. knowing something, and..”

“You know what I think it is, I think that’s—” She turns her head to the window and grits her teeth, annoyed. “Oh, he’s just gonna stand there. That’s great.”

Sunshine looks through and sees him pacing around restlessly.

“So what, he knows about the Luiseach? What does he mean by that?” Kat fixes her with an intense stare.

“I don’t know!” Sunshine replies, shaking her head. “I’ve never met him before, random guy..”

“Here, I’d much rather this be on you, so we’re gonna do this like this, how’s that.” Her mother takes the camera and shows Sunshine rolling her eyes. “What do you wanna do? You wanna talk to him?”

She inclines her head forward. “Yeah, kinda! Maybe he knows something.”

“You wanna talk to him just cause he’s kind of a cute boy?”

She raises a brow. “He’s not that attractive.”

“Is he still there?”

“Yes.”

“What’s he — he’s crying? What’s he doing?” They watch as he shakes his head in the palm of his hand then straightens his back, looking around the front hard.

“He looks so hurt,” Sunshine snorts. “I think you scared him. Oh, now he’s watching us watch him.”

“Can he do a Creepy Lady and just disappear on us?” Kat smirks. “Cause that would be awesome.”

“Oh, oh, he’s exiting.” Sunshine fake smiles. “Come on. Please?”

“You wanna talk to him?”

She nods.

Kat sighs and opens the door, giving the camera back to her daughter. “Alright, random dude, come back over,” she says grudgingly, voice tired.

He walks back toward the front door, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets. “Sunshine, this is random dude,” her mother introduces. “Do you have a name?”

“Uh,” he says uncertainly, squinting through the rays of light from the sky, “Nolan. Nolan is my name.”

“Excellent, well, I’m gonna take this, you’re prettier on camera. Come on down, Sunshine, and meet Nolan. He wants to talk to you, he wants to save you!” Kat speaks dramatically, backing away to show both teenagers in the shot.

Oh. Sunshine’s hair is auburn now. She dyed it. Little oopsie on the reminding thing.

“Hi Nolan,” she greets, making a face.

“It’s a pleasure,” he returns, and the two step forward. Turns out Nolan is like, a whole head taller than her short ass. Great.

“Are you Jehovah’s Witness? You’re much taller than me,” she says sarcastically, yet also unenthusiastically.

“No. I’m agnostic.” There’s little to no emotion in his voice and it’s a little creepy to Sunshine. Oh well. It seems like he knows something.

“Oh. That’s nice.”

“Are you Jehovah’s Witness?”

“Nope. Nope, mm-mm.”

“Oh.”

“She’s also not knocking on doors,” Kat notes.

He shakes his head. “Okay, so, yeah, I know, it’s weird..”

“It’s creepy,” her mother smiles.

“It’s creepy, okay, okay, I get it.” He shrugs then looks down. “The jacket probably isn’t helping, but that’s not the point, look — I think I have something that might help you guys. Alright?”

Sunshine cocks a brow and twirls her hand. “Elaborate?”

“I will, not here, it’s bright..” He looks over his shoulder.

“It’s _bright_? That was your — okay.”

“What, you forgot your sunglasses?” Kat snorts.

“Well it’s overcast, you can’t wear sunglasses on an overcast day,” he responds seriously, but also maybe a little knowingly. He seems to understand that what he says is _stupid_ , but simply doesn’t care. And maybe he kind of believes in it, still.

“That’s true, I agree.” Sunshine scrunches up her nose.

“Okay, _Nooolan_ , what are you trying to accomplish here, you wanna come in the house?” She stands with a weighted leg and crosses her arms.

“Nol — it’s, the emphasis is on the first part of the..” He trails off.

“Nooolan.”

“Nolan. It’s just Nolan.”

Sunshine laughs.

“Okay,” Kat huffs. “I’m just gonna start calling him Random Dude.” She pauses. “So, what, are you trying to get in to see if you can _feel_ something, do you think you have, like, a spiritual gift, what uh..?”

“I have, I have information that could help you guys.” He nods along to his words.

“Help us _what_?” Sunshine grunts.

His eyes flicker from Sunshine to Kat, back to Sunshine. “Defeat the... monsters?”

Sunshine looks amused. “Oh, there’s eyes in the bushes as well. Everyone’s a spy!”

The two women go on their usual joking ramble but Nolan doesn’t seem to take interest. “I happen to know that you guys have... a polter..geest.. that’s, uh—”

“Poltergeest?” Sunshine echoes, drawing her head forward incredulously. 

“Poltergeist, poltergist, whatever.”

Sunshine giggles under her breath.

“This is only gonna work if you say it correctly,” Kat says.

“Oh man. This is gonna be..” Sunshine shakes her head.

He goes on. “And, I... I think that you might be a little more special, than, any of us had imagined.”

“Special,” she echoes humorously.

“I know, sounds pointing.”

“A little more special than anyone, I dunno,” she smirks.

“Well — have, have you ever heard the term Luiseach before?”

“Not until..” Sunshine thinks. “Creepy Guy.”

“Not until he yelled it out,” Kat nods.

“Okay, well.” Nolan clears his throat. “Luiseach. It’s the concept that, uh, you might have a natural predisposition towards being able to.. interact with certain entities and parties that..”

Sunshine looks bored.

“..may not be privy to others of our.. race.” He looks dubious for a moment then squares his slightly hunched shoulders.

“Okay, so that’s what you think she.. is..?” Kat and Sunshine exchange a glance.

Nolan’s expression remains the same. Expressionless, maybe a little hesitant. “I don’t know. Possibly.”

“What are you, a walking encyclopedia?” 

“Do you — are you saying, like, you know more about the Luiseach? Is that what you mean?” Kat inquires.

Nolan looks down at Sunshine, then tilts his head to the side. “I’m saying that I do know more about the Luiseach, and I’m saying that I can probably help. But I can’t do it if you guys think that I’m gonna come in and.. you know, raid your larders, and steal your.. cattle.”

“I’m.. pretty sure we could take him, what do you think, Sunshine?”

“Yeah,” she agrees, not intimidated or worried at all. He’s scrawny enough. “We don’t have cattle, by the way.”

“Alright, so, thoughts?” Kat purses her lips. “Wanna let him in?”

“Whatever.” Sunshine turns and makes her way back to the door.

“I guess you’re comin’ in,” she smirks.

“We’ve let weirder people in.”

“We have?” Kat thinks. “I guess Creepy Lady just let herself in.”

“You guys won’t regret it,” Nolan speaks hopefully, following Sunshine.

“Sure,” she calls back.

“Alright. Excellent.”

God knows what will happen next. Let’s hope he really doesn’t raid their larders and steal their cattle.  
⠀ ⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’ALL HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM THAT NOLAN IS HERE I’M SO EXCITED AND HE’S SO HILARIOUS I MISS THIS AKAJEIADHNS


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nolan is interrogated.

They’re all sitting at the dining room table, staring at Nolan with raised brows and dubious glances. He sits closest to the camera, serious but comfortable enough in the house.

“So this is the, uh, Sunshine girl camera.” He tilts his head and observes the blinking red light.

“..yup,” Kat nods, her expression a mixture of annoyed and weirded out.

“It’s nice,” he notes, voice high. “It’s small.” Nolan makes a face and squints. “But it’s nice. I like it.”

Sunshine and her mother exchange an amused glance.

“I wish, uh.” He scratches his nose and his lips twitch into a small smile. “I wish Victoria could be here. Man.”

Kat shakes her head. “Uh yeah, no one’s figured out where she lives.”

Nolan stares at her then nods slowly. “Huh. How ‘bout that.” He gives a large fake smile to Sunshine.

“Yep, mmm..” she clasps her hands together and awkwardly looks around.

“Yeah, we prefer it that way,” her mother continues.

Nolan’s smile drops and he rests his arm on the table. “But more to the point — why I’m here. I think I might be a Luiseach.”

Sunshine blinks. “Established, continue.”

“Mmhm. Okay, so, take — take your minds back, if you will, a couple hundred years..”

She drops her head and wheezes. “Oh man,” she mutters.

“..right, uh, swords, sorcery, castles, Bubonic Plague, that sort of thing,” he goes on, ignoring Sunshine as she rests her cheek on her hand, looking skeptical. “Luiseachai. Luiseach.. Luiseaches, and uh, they — they fight, they fight the bad guys in a myriad of really cool ways, but the thing that distinguished them from other people was always the fact that they were able to simultaneously attract and repel dark energy.”

Sunshine doesn’t move. “What’d you do, Google that.”

He pauses. “Close.” Nolan reaches down into his leather jacket and unzips it. “I have the article right here, detailing what I found.” He passes it to the two. “You’ll find everything in there — you know, it’s full of all the important facts.”

“Uh, so, do we think that the Luiseach still are around today?” Kat asks, looking over the words intently.

“No, well —” He shakes his head and blows out. “I, I think _maybe_ , but they haven’t been seen around in a while.”

“Okay.” Her mother quirks her lips. “Is that what you think Sunshine _is_ , I mean..?”

Nolan considers. “Yeah,” he says, more or less unsure. “Yeah. I think so. I think maybe.”

“Okay..”

“I think probably.” 

Kat shakes her head. “But it says that they usually have a protector..?”

“Well, have you had anyone lookin’ out for you or something?”

Her mother rolls her eyes, glaring at Nolan. “I thought you watched the videos.”

He shrugs.

“Is that what Victoria..?”

“Probably, Victoria,” he nods. “I don’t know—”

“Or do you think _you’re_ the protector, I mean..?”

“Probably not, I’m very scrawny, I’m small, that’s, not, that doesn’t sound like..” He pushes his eyebrows together and shakes his head.

Sunshine eyes the camera and grunts. “Oh good, I was worried.”

“Okay, so there’s like powers and..” Kat trails off as she continues reading.

“Am I like a superhero?” Sunshine huffs, looking over her mother’s shoulder at the article.

“You do use the word superhero.”

“So.. what now?” Kat doesn’t look up as she speaks.

Nolan sighs. “I don’t know,” he admits.

Sunshine straightens. “I feel like the only logical thing to do would be.. ten random facts about Nolan, I mean, we really should get to know him, shouldn’t we?”

Nolan smiles. “Oh, that’s — that’s a good idea.”

Kat drops her arms and stares at her daughter in disbelief. “Really?”

Sunshine smirks and nods. Nolan just shows a toothy grin to the camera.

Her mother grumbles. “I was thinking he’s given us enough information, you can just hit the road.” She narrows her eyes. “The Luiseach are believed to be extinct..”

“Hmm. That’s nice.”

“You’re extinct.”

“Yup.”

Sunshine suddenly jumps up to Kat and Nolan’s surprise and picks up the camera, snorting. “He thought I was kidding.” She shows Nolan sitting in the chair, smiling widely. “Ten random facts. Go!”

“Alright, so.” He turns his head from side to side, thinking. “Random fact number one, uh, I’m a Cancer.” He purses his lips and nods, staring at the camera. When no one reacts he says, “Astrologically I’m a Cancer.”

“Oh.” Sunshine chuckles. “Okay.”

“Uhh.” He tilts his head up. “Number two, I never learned to drive a vehicle. I walked here.” His serious expression never changes.

“You walked here?” Kat mutters.

“It took a long time..” Nolan looks down.

“That’s—”

“Random fact number three! I’ve — I’ve lived in over 41 different home..s. Apartments.”

“How many were haunted?” Her mother snorts.

He thinks. “12. I’m just kidding.” Nolan smiles at both of them. “None. Not anymore. Number four, I like long walks on the beach and burritos.”

Sunshine giggles under her breath.

“At the same time,” he adds. “Number five, I’m an avid reader. However, I — I can’t think of any books that I’ve read.” He rubs his chin and moves his jaw.

“You read a lot but you can’t name any books?” Kat raises a brow at her daughter. “Twilight series, whole thing. I know it’s your favorite.”

Nolan looks down. “Don’t tell anyone,” he whispers sarcastically. “Number six, uhh, I’m a good cook of macaroni and cheese, quesadillas.. spaghetti.” He grins. “Buttered toast. Apples. I know where to get apples.”

“Oh, good,” she laughs.

“Number seven—”

“You don’t cook apples..”

“These are getting more difficult, there’s really not a lot of interesting things about me.”

“Only on seven,” Sunshine notes.

“Mmhm.”

“Oh heavens, come on.”

“Number seven, I’m a go-getter. I like to go and I like to get.”

“That’s — that’s not—”

“Number eight, uhhh, I’m sixty five years old. I use a very rigorous exfoliation method involving lots of different types of mineral deposits and.. soapstone salts, that sort of thing.” He nods, that thing he does when he’s genuinely saying something.

“Hmm, jealous,” Sunshine quips.

“Nine. Are we at nine?”

“Sure. Nine,” Kat grumbles. 

“Nine, um, when I was five years old I invented my own combination of spices as a — as a special blend, uh, it’s a secret.”

“Does it have a name?” Sunshine asks.

He raises a brow. “It’s a secret.” He uses that ‘obviously’ tone that Sunshine sometimes does to her mother, or, like, actually a lot, and it makes her realize how annoying it is.

“Kentucky Fried Chicken now uses it?” Kat jokes.

“No, they only use eleven, I use uh..” Nolan ponders. “The last count there was 45 spices.”

“That sounds... gross.” Sunshine makes a face.

“And uh, number ten, I have a slight but abiding interest in the paranormal and the strange.” He gives a closed, forced smile.

“That’s... very random..”

“Wow. Alright.” Sunshine laughs. “Those were... ten.. extra special random facts about Nolan.”

Hmm. She’s not sure what to think about him, but does wonder after he eventually leaves. She thinks he’s annoying and kind of obnoxious, but she does want her fans’ opinions on him. They didn’t really learn much from him — his ten random facts weren’t that personal. I mean, yes, they were, but they weren’t _deep_.

Not like she cares much anyway.

She guesses he’s useful in the fact that he can Google a couple of things, and he’s almost like an encyclopedia in that manner; definitely a know-it-all. But he has good shoes. That’s always important.

Also, he likes spices a lot. That was weird.

Talks about himself very fondly, which she doesn’t like either. Hmm. It seems there’s more bad about him than good, and she needs to add the fact that she doesn’t know why he came or what he came for.

Hopefully she doesn’t have to see him again. If so, she might actually pull her hair out. Even though he _did_ leave his information and wants her to call him, Sunshine isn’t sure she really wants to. But it seems like he really wants to help.

Oh. Her mom also talked to him before he left and, well — apparently he’d found them _accidentally_? Whatever that means... he’s not as cool as he thinks he is, clearly.

Ugh. Too many spiraling thoughts, and too little time to clear them all up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY these chapters for now are just kinda fun and lighthearted but we’ll get into the story soon enough sorry i just love nolan so damn much and i wanna cherish him !!!


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine receives some weird letters.

The next few days go on quietly. She hardly thinks about Nolan at this point, and mostly forgets she has his number. Not like he’s tried to contact her at all, anyway.

Then, she gets something in the mail. It’s an envelope with her full name written on the back, which is very unsettling, and inside is a paper with terrible, huge black font.

_“It’s not over. This is only the beginning of your journey. They are still watching. They need you to fulfill your destiny. We all do. You must continue to shine light and remove the dark.”_

Not weird or creepy sounding or anything.

So, yeah. She’s not really sure who’s sending her mail or who knows her full name (please don’t tell her it’s Nolan and his “triangulation” skills). Maybe it’s whover sent her the picture so long ago of her ghosts, the ones with the bags over their heads.

But when she thinks of that, she thinks of the sacrifice site. She remembers the rain pouring down on her body and drenching her. She remember the screams echoing in her ears, the terrible snarls of the demon from right beside her.

She begins to shake. She — she doesn’t, she doesn’t know how to feel, it’s all coming back, all of those memories, and she needs help, she needs someone, where is her mother? Possessed? No, she’s fine... she’s fine, that’s not, that’s not what’s happening anymore. 

Sunshine dials the number and waits, breathing irregularly. It rings for a moment before someone picks up, but doesn’t say anything.

“H — Hello?” Sunshine whispers, closing her eyes.

“Oh. Sunshine.” Nolan clears his throat. “I didn’t expect you to, uh, to call me. What’s up?”

“I, I need you to come over.” She tries to calm herself down and thinks about all the good in her life, how her mother is fine now, and how the demon is gone. She’s fine. She’s _fine_

“Gotcha.” And he hangs up.

Um. Well. That’s great. 

So, she waits around for about half an hour until a knock on the door jolts her from her relaxing. Now that she’s calm, she sighs and stands tall, strolling over to the door. And there Nolan is, same black leather jacket, same squinted eyes and pursed lips.

“Sit down,” she offers, then grabs her camera, deciding that he can make himself useful while he’s here. “I have Nolan here to ask him about the letter,” she explains, turning the screen to him.

He stares at the walls and doesn’t move his head when she calls his name. Sunshine grunts and tries again. “Nolan.” He looks back at her and smiles. “Hey buddy, hey. So.” She slaps the envelope down and pushes it over to him. “Was this you who sent this to me?”

He breathes out and takes the letter, furrowing his brows. “Don’t lie,” she adds. Nolan begins reading it to himself. “Take your time,” she says sarcastically.

He looks at the envelope then back to the letter, pushing the envelope away. “What are you doing?” she laughs. He doesn’t answer. “Did you or did you—” She giggles. “Not?”

“No,” he says simply. “I didn’t write this.”

“Oh, you had to read the full thing to know.”

“I know what it means though.” His dark eyes flicker back up.

“What do you mean you know what it means?”

Nolan clears his throat, and here it is, he’s gonna go on his little I’m-smarter-than-you tangent. “Well, obviously, someone’s trying to send you a message.” He nods.

“Oh. No way, with the letter, they were trying to send me—”

“They’re saying that you.. are..” He inclines his head forward and forces a smile, trying to get her to say it. She’s lost. “The Luiseach,” Nolan finally whispers. “Remember? That’s my, that’s my tag, my tag line.”

“Oh, right,” she snorts.

He immediately drops his smile and returns to being serious. “You are the Luiseach.”

“Yeah.”

Nolan points to her.

“Mmhm. I don’t think so.”

He shrugs a shoulder back. “I think so.”

“Why do you think that?” Sunshine cocks a brow.

He gazes down at the table and shakes his head. “Many, many, uh, good —” He scratches his nose then throws his arms out. “You’re not the Luiseach, okay? Prove it.”

“How —” She laughs. “How am I gonna prove it?”

Nolan tilts his head from side to side. “Let’s uh, let’s go somewhere haunted, uh huh?”

“Yeah.”

“And if uh — if crazy things happen—” He waves his hands around, “and you don’t completley lose your biscuits, then that’s a point in my favor. Hm? What do you think?”

“Nooo, that doesn’t make sense,” Sunshine counters. “If _you_ say I’m a..” She pauses. “Luiseach.”

“Uh huh.”

“And I don’t... lose my biscuits.. then you’d be afraid.”

He looks neutral. “That’s — that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

“You’re willing to — be a scaredy pants on camera?”

He shrugs for a moment. “Yeah, yeah.” He checks the backyard then returns back to Sunshine, casually leaning back. “Yeah, yeah, it’s not about the camera.” Nolan makes a face. 

“It’s not about the camera?”

“It’s about fighting the forces of evil, just like the letter says.” She can’t tell if he’s being serious or sarcastic.

“There’s no _fighting the forces of evil_ in this letter at all.” She picks it up and eyes it.

“I didn’t actually read it, I was.. just..”

“You were just mumbling to yourself, creepily? That’s good.”

Nolan clears his throat. “Let’s — let’s go, we’ll, you know, hang out, spend the night, in the morning —”

Sunshine looks at the camera with that ‘stop talking, that sounds weird and distributing’ expression.

“— if we’re not _dead_ — and uh, if you’re not crazy, and I’m not crazy, we can reevaluate, uh, you know, what’s happening.”

She doesn’t _think_ he’s trying to lure her somewhere to either seduce or kill her (though she’s still pretty sure she can take him), because he still keeps that serious face, and nothing about him hints at anything deeper than what he says out loud.

Maybe she trusts him, just a little bit. Is that bad?

“Spend the night? Yeah right,” she says anyway, rolling her eyes. Not happening either way. She snorts when he looks around.

“It’s okay,” he says slowly. “You can bring your.. mom.”

“Okay. Well. While I ponder bringing my mother on a haunted overnight trip with _Nolan_ , I’ll get back to you guys.”  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
By the next day, Sunshine’s decided she at least wants to _try_ with this little trip. She wants to ask her mother to go, though, because they’ve always done this kind of thing together, and she still is wary of Nolan and his intentions.

Might as well to ask her right now.

She runs into the door on the way down and grunts. “Ow.”

“You alright there, princess?” Kat jokes when her daughter walks in the kitchen.

Sunshine smiles. “Yeah. Hey.”

Her mother’s folding towels on the dining room table for some reason, and when she sees the camera, hardly reacts with any emotion. “Oh, goody. Cause it’s been five minutes since we had the camera on us.”

She’s used to this thing by now.

Sunshine mimicks Kat’s complaining then eventually leans on one of the chairs. She realizes she has some other questions first. “So. I wanted to talk to you about the _Luiseach_ and how you feel about it.”

“Look how good we are at pronuncing.”

“Pronuncing? Pronunciating.”

Kat sighs. “Yeah, I talk for a living. What uh — what’s the question?”

“How do you feel about the Luiseach?”

“Oh.” She breathes out heavily. “Um, I don’t know. It could be kinda cool.”

“Why is it kind of cool?”

“I dunno.” She shrugs. “Maybe that uh — maybe it does kind of explain why things don’t seem to bother you as much as, you know, us mere mortals. I don’t know. I mean, I guess if it was true, it would explain a lot.”

“That’s true..”

“It seems like there should be more out there about it though.” Her mother frowns. “You know?”

“Mmhm.” Sunshine thinks. Maybe they just really are considered extinct, or maybe no one knows what they are anymore. “It’s not very out there, just kind of.. secretetive.”

“What?” Kat laughs. “Secretive. Uh, yeah, you know what I wanna know.” She smiles. “Is what’s uh.” She twirls her fingers mysteriously. “Your _secret power_.”

“Oh, so now you believe in it?”

“If I did believe in it, what is your secret power?”

“I don’t know.” She thinks. “I hope I can fly.”

“You wanna fly?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll interview you now.” Her mother takes the camera. “How do you feel about the Luiseach?”

“Uhhh. I hope I can fly.” She nods at the screen.

“That’s what you’re hopin’ for?”

“Yeah. I think it would be cool. But they _said_ , according to legend, we may not know for many more years, many more _moons_ —”

“Before you find out what your superhero power is?”

“Mmhm.”

“I think we should try different things, let’s throw you off of a building.”

Sunshine chuckles and rolls her eyes. “Light me on fire!” she jokes.

“Let’s see, see if that works,” Kat laughs.

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“You don’t think so?”

“I’ve found my power!” Sunshine fake yells.

“We could ask around.” Her daughter makes a face. “We could just ask random people what uh, ‘Are you her protector?’”

Sunshine snorts. “Do you know me?” she goes along.

“You know what I wonder is, for a while, you said that you thought, you felt like sometimes somebody was following you or something?”

“Mmhm..”

“What if that _was_ your protector? Mmm. Deep thought.”

“I know. Ponder!” Sunshine taps her chin with her finger and lifts her head dramatically.

“Have you asked uh.. the YouTubers what they think?”

“No.” She grunts. “Children. Of the. YouTube.”

“And adults,” Kat adds.

“And adults.” Sunshine makes a weird face. “And anyone between children and adults, how do you feel, about all these shenanigans? Hm? Hm? Hm?” She tilts her head to the other side with every ‘hm.’

“And what’s your secret power?” her mother whispers.

“And what’s my secret power?” Sunshine echoes louder. “I hope I can like... read people’s minds.”

“That might be scary.”

“That would be fun.”

And she completely forgets to even ask her mom about Nolan.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
By the end of the week, Sunshine’s decided that she’s not a Luiseach. That’s weird and silly and kind of ridiculous, and, she just doesn’t — it doesn’t fit.

Unless something drastic and crazy happens that changes her mind otherwise, she’s pretty sure that she doesn’t believe it. That’s stupid.

She’s not a child anymore.

Neither is Nolan, but he sure as hell acts like one.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
Something weird happened today.

“So guys,” she begins, sitting on the couch and faxing the camera. “Something.. _weird_... happened today.”

“No no no, what are you doing, what are you doing?” her mother asks excitedly. “Are you telling? Are you telling? Ooo, are we gonna tell a story??” She sits down beside her daughter and claps like a little kid. “Okay.”

Sunshine cocks a brow. “Well, you were there.”

“I _know_! But I didn’t know you were gonna.. share.. cause it’s so weird, I thought it might be weird.”

“Okay, well yes, it’s _weird_ , would you like to tell them?”

“No, you can tell them, I just wanna be here.” Kat draws her knees to her chest and smiles.

“There’s not gonna be any reaction,” Sunshine laughs, waving at the camera. 

“Forget about that part,” her mother chuckles.

“It’s not a live audience.” She claps. “Okay— _so_ , something weird happened today when we were out shopping. Uh.. there was a man who seemed to be following us through several stores, not just one..”

“She’s figuring out how to notice if somebody’s following her.”

“Yeah, it was, um, weird. Strange.”

“It’s like, everywhere we went, he was there.”

“Mmhm. And — so finally, I just decided to go up and be like, ‘Hey dude, what’re you doin’?’”

“Let’s clarify, I was like, ‘Imma go find out what’s goin’ on!’ And.. then.. she took care of it, cause she’s.. very..” Kat looks at her daughter.

“Look at my muscles,” she whispers, then continues on. “But you know, at first I thought maybe it was one of you more creepy YouTube people..”

“Cause every once in a while we _do_ think somebody looks at us funny and we’re like, ‘Okay, why are they looking at us like that?’ Or, is it somebody who knows who she is on Sunshine, or whatever, so at first we thought it was that, but..” her mother trails off. “He followed us in every store! Stores men should not be in.”

“I mean, you know, it was weird, so I went up to him, he freaked out and was like, ‘Don’t approach me, you’re one of them, you’re one of them, keep away.’ And I was like... yeah.”

“And then he just.. ran off. It’s like — it was weird, it’s like she got too close to him or something. It was very odd.”

“Very strange. But we didn’t see him again.”

“No.” Kat shakes her head in an agreeing manner. “Not at the other stores we went to.”

Sunshine rests her cheek on her knuckles. “So, Yes. That’s our weird story for the day. Ta-da.”  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
She gets another weird envelope in the mail, same handwriting on the back with her full name.

Great.

Sunshine begins to peel it open but it’s really stuck, or she’s just weak. What feels like three hours later, she finally takes the letter out and looks over it, humming cheerfully. Then she cuts short.

_”GO HERE.”_

Below that is a picture of what looks like a warehouse with four garages.

Alright. That’s very... direct. She’s not sure how to feel about it.

Maybe Mr. Know-It-All Nolan will know what they have to do.

Two hours later, Nolan, Kat, and Sunshine are sitting at the dining room table, inspecting the envelope and its contents. Kat and her daughter argue about whether Nolan will know what the letter means, and after looking over it, he tilts his head and interrupts.

“Okay, so what this is is, uh...” He clears his throat. “Yeah, no, yeah, so this is a photograph..” Nolan waves the letter in his hands, balancing it delicately between his fingers. “Printing paper, relatively thick.”

Sunshine can’t stop rolling her eyes. 

“Black text, as you can see.” Nolan moves back a little. “Looks like a — Futora font? Maybe?”

“Oh my goshh,” Sunshine snaps, annoyed. Can he get on with it? 

He gives her a look then returns to the paper. “Uhhh. Parking. It’s a parking garage, there’s a drive—”

“Okay you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Sunshine sighs and leans back.

“Well — no, he’s saying exactly what we already determined,” Kat defends, narrowing her eyes and glaring at Nolan.

“Yeah, but —”

“What it is,” Nolan goes on, “This is a — this is a loading bay, probably at some sort of grocery store maybe, uh, Wamart, Target, something like that. Uhh, this is where they —” He moves his hands along to his words, “—what this is is they bring in the semi-trucks and they put them into reverse and—” 

“Okay, please stop talking.” Sunshine and her mother exchange a glance, but there’s a flicker of amusement somewhere there. She then sits up when something dawns on her. “Huh. I have an idea.”

She stands up and grabs a pencil. Kat and Nolan watch her, confused. She sits down and begins to use the dull lead to scribble over the back of the picture. “This is where my Nancy Drew training comes in.”

“You went to school for that?”

“I did.”

“What are you — doing?” Nolan peers over her shoulder.

“Ooo. Is there something there?” Kat asks, eyes widening.

“Wait a minute.” Nolan seems to finally understand what she’s doing and shoves the camera to the paper, trying to read the uncovered words.

“Hey, cameraman, back off a minute.” Nolan grumbles and watches Sunshine write down the hidden address.

 _108 E 50th_.

Looks like they’re going to the warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nolan is hilarious no other note here


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something weird happens at the warehouse, and Sunshine attempts to convince her mother to let them visit Nolan’s grandma’s haunted house.

Field trip time. They’re going to the warehouse.

“We’re very excited and everything,” she tells the camera, turning her head to the back seat. “We brought Nolan.”

He grins.

“For... protection I guess..?”

His eyebrows drop and he turns away, frowning and shaking his head, even more so when Kat laughs.

“Hey,” he interjects, taking a swig of Canada Dry. “I’m — I’m decent in a fight.”

Sunshine raises a brow. “Yeah. Mm.”

Nolan pauses. “I’m not, actually.”

“I’d hurt that leather jacket~” Kat teases.

“That’s why I wear it, so that I don’t have to fight people.” He nods but Sunshine can tell he’s being sarcastic. Sometimes she really doesn’t know, he always keeps a straight face.

“Is that why?” she ponders.

He looks down. “It doesn’t work.”

Kat snorts. “You just love this. He loves this.”

Nolan looks out of the windows, trying not to smile.

“He should have his own YouTube channel!”

Kat gasps. “Would he get off our’s then?!”

Sunshine huffs. “I’m doubting it. I don’t know. What do you guys think? Should he? Maybe? Possibly?”

“You didn’t ask him what he thinks.”

She makes a face. “I don’t care what he thinks.”

“I don’t think it really matters what I think.” Nolan sighs, then beams. “I’m excited, guys. So exciting.” He giggles like a little kid and looks around.

“Does he know you’re still taping?” Kat laughs.

“I don’t think so.”

He drops his smile and returns to his firm stance, and is quiet until they reach the warehouse. Sunshine steps out of the car and stares at the four garages, matching them up with the picture she was sent.

“Do you guys think this is it?” she asks. Nolan walks by, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, and squints.

Kat crosses her arms. “Yeah, I mean. It looks exactly the same.”

“I don’t get it. There has to be something here.” Nolan twists his head from side to side.

“There’s not — there’s nobody even here.” Kat sets her sunglasses on top of her head.

“There’s gotta be something!” But when nothing seems to happen, nothing at all, he just sighs. 

“You can’t even tell what the — the building is..”

“Yeah, it doesn’t have like a name..” Sunshine trails off.

“Wait a minute.” Nolan seems to come to a realization, and his hands widen to the side in his pockets. “What if it’s nothing?”

Kat rolls her eyes. “I — I think we’ve just—”

“What if it’s nothing— no, seriously, what if there is nothing here? That can only mean one thing.” He nears the two and waits for them to answer.

“That there’s nothing here,” Kat replies, annoyed.

He stares at her then backs up, waving his arms near his head. “They’re watching us!” He smiles, maybe nervously or cheerfully because he’s ‘figured it out’. “They’re waiting for us!”

“Who’s waiting for us?” Sunshine asks.

“They’re waiting for us to come here!” Nolan hops around. 

Kat blocks out the sun with a hand and looks around. “What, there’s no —”

“They wanted to see if we would believe — if we would actually show up, and we did, and they know!” 

“There’s nothing here!” Sunshine exclaims, looking around. She does feel a little unsettled, though. What if he’s right?

“There’s no cameras, there’s — there’s nothing,” Kat agrees, shaking her head.

“There’s gotta be something, all right, all we gotta do is look around, trust me — this is, this is big guys! This is — this is _evil_ , okay? And good, and this is them fighting, and we’re in the middle of it!” Nolan smiles. “Just look around, maybe — maybe there’s..”

They follow Nolan as he examines the garages, but he stamps his foot down in anger when he can’t find anything.

“There’s nothing! Nolan!” Sunshine and her mother stop, but he continues pacing around the area.

“There’s nothing,” Kat calls after him.

“Check..” He stumbles over his words. “Look, It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t _matter_ if there’s nothing, okay? They don’t want us to see them, that’s fine, we don’t have to see them yet. But..” He clasps his fingers and breathes out. “I can feel it, guys. Seriously. This is big.”

Maybe Nolan really _is_ crazy.

“Okay, I don’t trust your feelings, I trust yours.” Kat points to Sunshine. “Do you feel anything?”

“I don’t know!” She furrows her brows and looks around the area as well. She does, kind of, but.. isn’t sure if it’s just her being stupid and paranoid like Nolan is. “Maybe there’s something, or.. somebody here..”

“Hey!” The two follow Nolan’s gaze toward a silver car that slowly pulls out from behind a tree. He begins to run after it as it peels away. “Hey! HEY!”

Kat drops her head into her hands. “What, okay..”

Sunshine laughs at the way he sprints. “Why is Nolan running after it, that’s the real question.” 

He continues to follow it even after it pulls onto the main road and speeds away. 

“Nolan!” she yells. He must have heard her because he slows down, clearly out of breath, and watches the car escape.

“Is he trying to get a license plate?”

“I don’t know.” Sunshine sighs. 

“It went that way!” Nolan shouts back.

No shit.

“All right, that’s why we brought Nolan, so he’d chase the.. bad guys away, I don’t know.” She flicks hair from her cheeks and faces the direction of the wind.

“Okay, that was definitely not a _ghost_.” Kat throws her hands up. “It was a person in a car.”

A person none of them had gotten a good look at, apparently.

Great.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
Two days later, Nolan makes himself at home. And apparently he has a proposition.

They’re sitting in the leather chairs, a pen twirling in his fingers as he watches the camera. He leans back and sighs, scratching the back of his head. “I mean — you’re the Luiseach or you’re not, right?”

“Uh — yeah?”

“One of two possibilities.”

“Mmmhm, 50/50.”

“But we can’t do anything..” He draws his head forward dramatically. “Until we know for sure.”

“Okay..”

He shrugs. “And I’m gonna propose the same thing that I’ve been proposing. Let’s take a trip to my grandma’s house.”

Sunshine chuckles. “Your grandma’s house?”

Nolan nods. “My grandma’s house, which is also haunted.”

“It’s also haunted? It’s your grandma’s house and it’s haunted?” She smirks.

“That’s sort of the reason I got into all this stuff.”

“Wow,” she says, hardly pretending to be interested. 

“Come on,” he continues. “Look — nothing — my grandma’s been living there for fifty years, nothing bad is gonna happen. We just need to know what happens there and how you react.”

“Okay..?”

“Bring your mom, it’ll be fun. We have, like, popcorn and milkshakes.”

“In your grandma’s haunted house.” She laughs.

“She’s very hospitable.”

“Is she?”

“Surprisingly. Considering the... luminousness of the.. decor..” Nolan clicks the pen and stares straight ahead, that thing she’s noticed he does when he’s being more or less funny.

In his own terms, at least.

Sunshine shakes her head, amused. “Okay, right. So if we go and — we hang out and..”

He scratches his chin. “We go, nothing happens, you’re not the — you’re not the Chosen One.” He throws his arms to the side. “We — we go, something _does_ happen —”

“Harry Potter,” she laughs.

“—it goes to pieces, same thing. But... if you are the Luiseach, it’ll go down. And we’ll know.”

Well.

Looks like she’ll have to think on it.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
The day after Nolan’s proposition, Kat and Sunshine are going to Uncle Tommy’s apartment.

Yep, he’s been back for like, a week, and they’ve actually been trying to get him to come to the house, but he wouldn’t let them film it because he had bad hair.

Hope his hair looks better today.

Sunshine knocks on the dark green door and Kat playfully covers the eye hole or whatever it’s called on doors. “Here, I’ll cover this so he doesn’t know that it’s us.”

“That’s not weird. I don’t think he can even see out of that.”

He swings open the door and laughs when they mock yell. “Hey, guys! How are you doing? Get over here!”

“Oh, we’re hugging,” her mother comments, but gladly does so after he crushes the life out of Sunshine.

“Awkward hugs,” Sunshine laughs.

“Hi guys!” he waves jazz hands to the camera. “I’m back.”

“And we’re so happy.” Kat grins. “Welcome home Uncle Tommy.”

“I’m happy too.” He nods. “Thanks guys!”

“And you’re officially here forever now, right?” Kat smirks.

“Back in America for good.”

After the three go on their usual ramble, Kat moves closer. “Let’s analyze, how does the hair look? Much better today.”

Uncle Tommy plays with it a little. “I can’t see it,” he laughs.

“Here, wanna see?” Her mother turns it over and shows it to him.

“Oh, now it looks like a window,” he laughs when the screen points toward the wall. “You are such a dork.”

God, she’s missed him so much.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀  
Sunshine is pretty sure she wants to go to Nolan’s grandma’s haunted house. That sounds weird, but she thinks it might answer a lot of questions for her.

And it might be fun. Not for any other reason than it might be haunted, of course. 

She also likes the idea of being a Luiseach. It’s like a modern-day superhero. And that’s super cool. Who doesn’t wanna be a super hero? Seriously. She totally wore a cape when she was a kiddo. 

It just explains so much. Like, why she doesn’t freak out when the ghosts try to be a home-wrecker. Sometimes they go a little too far, but for the most part, she’s really interested in them. She wants to be involved in this.

Or maybe she’s just crazy, and that’s another reason. Her mom says she’s ‘special.’ Would that be a surprise at all?

Hm. 

But uh. Well, first she needs to ask mama bear. Who _knows_ what she’ll say to this little trip.

Sunshine sits beside her on the couch. “So.” Kat shuffles around before setting her magazine down. “Mom. Stop moving.”

She sees the camera and smiles. “Oh! Sorry. I didn’t know what you were doin’.” Kat leans into the pillows and tilts her head. “What’s up?”

“So.” Sunshine breathes in. “I was wondering if we could — you and me, you, me — and I guess..”

“Shopping!”

“Nolan..”

“Watch the latest Twilight?”

She chuckles. “No, go to Nolan’s grandma’s... haunted house.”

Kat pauses and rolls her eyes. “Pretty sure I just heard _Nolan’s grandma’s haunted house_.”

“Yeah. It’s a haunted house, she’s lived there forever. He wants to see if my power works!”

“If your power works,” she laughs. “I think that we had come to the decision — during our last family council with Uncle Tommy — that you were gonna stay away from this... haunted-iss stuff.”

“Haunted-iss.”

She looks to the side.

“I’m like a kid with candy, you can’t take me away from it,” Sunshine counters. “Come on. Please?”

“It’s — I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Please?”

“Everything weird happens when you get around anything.. old..”

“Not _everything_ happens.”

Kat shakes her head. “Not a good idea.”

“Mom.”

“You agreed with me! You _said_ that—”

“No, I never said that I’d stay away!” Sunshine shakes her finger at her mother. 

“Well — maybe you should email Uncle Tommy and see what he thinks.”

Sunshine sighs and stands up, walking away.

“You know I’m right,” her mother calls after her.

“Maybe I’ll just go and hang out with other kids who smoke crack or something,” she whispers to the camera. “I’m sure she’d love that!”

Kat grunts. “All right, we’ll go.”

Sunshine quirks her eyebrows and turns around, smug. “Will we?”

Yes.  
⠀ ⠀ ⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so i’m gonna be in new york for like 5 days so i probably won’t update at all until next weekend, sorry children


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nolan’s grandma’s haunted house has a darker history than anyone imagined. At least everyone’s still in one piece.

So. Nolan’s grandma’s haunted house.

The three are currently in the car, Nolan in the back as usual, and Sunshine turns on the car lights because her camera light doesn’t work, like, at all.

“Yeah, this is _really_ safe,” Kat huffs. “Nolan, are we almost there?”

He looks pretty serious and is more dressed up than usual. His hair is slicked back, not hanging in front of his face, and he’s wearing a checkered collared shirt underneath his usual black leather jacket. Fancy, for him.

“Uh, yeah, it’s right up here,” he responds, squinting through the window into the darkness of the street.

“Do you even know where we’re going Nolan?” Sunshine asks.

“Uhhh...”

Kat interrupts. “I think — it’s his grandma’s house, I think he knows where she lives. Like _this_? Go up here?”

“Gravel road,” Sunshine commentates. “Creepy street light..”

“You know what? Hey, give him the camera, let him be the camera guy.”

“O...kay..?”

“Cause you’re prettier, we’ll put you on camera then.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that..” She looks unsure for once, because she hasn’t ever really given her prized camera to anyone but her mother. But she trusts Nolan, right?

“Hold it _steady_ ,” Kat orders, more or less light-hearted. “You’ve got this, Nolan.”

“I’m gonna do my best,” he sighs.

After a little more confusion and Nolan giving terrible directions, they finally manage to pull up to the driveway of the home.

“That’s a cute little house!” Kat exclaims.

“It doesn’t look haunted at all,” Sunshine snorts.

“Well... I know.” Nolan scratches his head, observing the greenery around them. 

“Okay, so, where’s grandma?” Kat puts the car in park.

“Oh, she went away for a while.”

“Oh — did she die?!” Kat looks back at him incredulously. “Did you kill your grandma?”

“Well — I — wouldn’t tell you if I _had_. She’s in Cabo now. She goes once every five years.”

Kat grunts as all three get out of the car. The house is a dainty little place, white wood panels flowing down and an old school-shaped roof. The porch has bushes spilling through, and yet there’s a very homey feeling about the place.

Sunshine glances at her mother through the darkness, who flashes a grin. “Don’t worry, I have a flashlight.”

“Do you,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You’re like a Boy Scout.”

“Look how prepared I am!” Kat rolls the flashlight through her fingers, clicking it on.

“Well I mean,” Nolan speaks up, “there are lights in the house.”

“Oh,” Kat wheezes, “I forgot about that. On haunted shows they..”

Both teens stared at her.

“Okay.” She purses her lips and makes her way toward the porch.

Nolan trails after them, observing the house as if he hasn’t been here in years. Maybe he hasn’t. It would make sense, after all, because his directions are just terrible. Either that, or.. he just gives terrible directions. “If you think it’s gonna be more... appealing.. we can keep the lights off, but, honestly, like, that’s — not — a good idea.”

“Cause it’s haunted!” her mother exclaims.

“So this is, uh—” Nolan pinches his gaze as he looks through the swathing shadows blanketed over the home. “This is my grandmother’s house.”

“This is a little sketch.” Kat steps on a twig and Sunshine nearly runs back to the car.

“Be careful with the vegetation. It’s alive,” Nolan jokes.

“Woah — grandma needs to do yard work.” Kat takes a white flower in her hand and Sunshine steps up to the trees

“If you knew my grandma you’d understand.” Nolan waved the camera around the porch. “I mean, I love the lady, but she’s a little— uh— peculiar.”

Sunshine stood next to the front door and stared at Nolan, waiting for him to open the door. The place was nice, she could admit, but deep inside her stomach she felt something writhing. Something bad. It put her off guard and she wasn’t exactly sure how to feel. She instead just rolled her eyes at Nolan’s comment and tried to push away her paranoia.

He clicked the key in the door and Kat playfully knocked on the door. “Anyone home? The ghosts can’t let us in?”

Nolan didn’t respond and instead opened the door to the house, stumbling around the darkness. “Alright,” he muttered, squinting.

“Do you want me to get that for you there?” Sunshine snorted, “you can’t multitask the keys and the...?”

Kat laughed somewhere father off as Sunshine turned the light on.

“Sorry, I’m trying to, uh...” Nolan scratched the back of his head and frowned. Light spilled over the living room, opening the house to everyone’s eyes. 

“This is so cute!” Kat exclaimed, glancing around at the pictures hanging on the walls. 

“Yeah, no, it’s a— it’s a nice house.” Nolan genuinely smiles, as if he’s reliving memories from years before. Sunshine smiles at that, too.

Her mother pokes her chin. “It doesn’t seem very, um, like your traditional— haunted— _facade_.” She waves her hands above her head, as if she was stretching out a rainbow.

“Yeah! Well... you know what, make you— make yourselves at home, um, we can— have some— do you guys like snacks?” Nolan staggers awkwardly over words, brows pressing together in slight worry and embarrassment. “Did you guys bring snacks?”

The two of them look at Nolan. “Grandma doesn’t have food?” Kat asks, while Sunshine questions the same thing solemnly.

“Well, um, she _has_ food, but— I— well, see, there’s this thing.” Sunshine grunts and Kat smiles, a mix of amused and confused. “Uh, I tried once to take some of her food when I was six years old—”

Mother and daughter exchange a glance. “This is gonna be a long story,” Sunshine groans.

“And she didn’t like it,” he finishes.”

The two laugh at him and amuse the idea of Nolan’s grandmother kicking him out of the house. They eventually turn all of the lights on and keep poking around the house— it’s set up nice and quaint, honestly. When walking in, the house opens up to a living room and spreads into a nice, old-smelling kitchen. Down the hall are a few bedrooms and a bathroom that they haven’t yet explored.

Sunshine feels something there. It isn’t anything good, either. That being said, she takes the camera from Nolan and slumps her shoulders, growing relaxed at the familiar feel of the camera in her hands. 

“Okay guys,” she states, “so we have—” Clattering from the cupboards, “—moved into the kitchen and... Nolan’s in there trying to set up some cameras or something, and mom is _raiding_ the kitchen of food.”

Kat walks around the island, holding a Diet Coke in one hand and munching on a protein bar in the other.

In the other room, Nolan positions his camera, tilting his head to make sure it can span through the entire living room. He furrows his eyebrows, pushing his dark hair back. “How do you tell if this is... on?” he calls back, swiveling his head toward the kitchen.

When no response comes, he wipes his hand over his mouth and suddenly stiffens, pointing a finger toward the kitchen. “Hey, hey, hey! What did I say— what did I say about the food? Nobody—” Nolan gives up and grunts, standing and quickly walking over to the kitchen. “Guys, come on.. please don’t touch anything..”

“She doesn’t have anything at all,” Sunshine drawls when Nolan joins them in the kitchen, “she’s foodless— why’s there so many chickens in here, seriously, does your grandma have a set?” She scrutinizes the hanging chicken paintings and fragile decorations dotting an old, brown dresser. 

Kat pulls out Cheetos. “Here.”

“More... chip bags.”

“ _Guys_ ,” Nolan stresses, running a hand through his hair. He stands, unamused, watching Kat open the bag. “Don’t do it.” She pulls out a Cheeto and pops it in her mouth. Nolan presses his lips together and sighs, closing his eyes. 

Sunshine only laughs and Kat appears to not care. 

“Alright, _fine_ , you know what? No, that’s..” Nolan sits in a chair next to the chicken dresser. “...that’s fine, just eat then, that’s.. You know.” He tries to shrug it off, nonchalant, but clearly cares very much. “Like I care about, you know, making sure that my grandmother has things that she can eat. You know, she’s _frail_ , y’know, she’s frail and she needs her carbs.”

“Her Cheetos?” Sunshine snorts, unconvinced. 

“Show us this house,” Kat says, turning to wash her hands. Nolan doesn’t move, just stares straight forward, ignoring both of them.

“Come on!” Sunshine exclaims, walking toward him.

“Well, this is the kitchen,” he says, continuing to stare straight forward. 

“So enthused.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be a great time, okay?” Nolan stands up. “You ever had a slumber party before?”

“Oo, a pillow fight,” Kat snickers.

“Over here,” Nolan continues seriously, pointing inside a room tucked in the corner of the kitchen, “this is the washer. And the dryer. This is where we do the laundry.”

Sunshine turns her head to stare. 

“This is our dining room table.” He gently pulls out a chair, glancing at both of them to make sure they’re listening. He slaps the chair, “What happy meals we’ve had here, I’ll tell you what.” 

Sunshine snorts and exchanges an amused glance with her mother. “So thorough.”

Nolan turns around and glances into the living room. “Uh, living room.” He leads the two to a white door with a hanging metal star on the top, opening it up. “This is the closet, clothes closet.” 

He begins to walk down the dark hallway, which stops Sunshine in her tracks. She eventually continues to follow, feeling slightly more comforted by being in the middle.

“So, uh, even though we’re not consuming food, _or_ beverages—” Nolan looks darkly into the camera but his expression loosens, “—other than tap water, that’s fine. If you do need to relieve yourself, uh, bathroom is here.” He switched on the light to another small white room, containing a sink, a toilet next to it, and a shower in the back.

“It’s very... white..” Sunshine observes.

“It has all the necessities,” Nolan goes on, then loudly clears his throat when she and Kat linger.

“I’m assuming that means we continue on?” 

“Yes.” He leads them to the end of the hallway, eyeing a door to the left. “So this is the den. You know why I love the den? I don’t really know.” There are cat pictures and posters hanging on the walls, several plump chairs and couches laid around on the floor. “It’s just _cozy_.”

“Mmhm...” Sunshine cocks a brow at all the clatter lying around on the ground, spilling out of the closet. “This is kind of, um, messy.” 

“A little bit,” Kat agrees from the door.

“Hey.” Nolan stares at her, but continues on his rambling, “yeah, I used to— used to play with this little barn right here.” Sunshine glances down at the wooden toy farm below their feet, a fence surrounding it.

Sunshine quips, “Maybe that’s where your grandma’s chicken obsession comes from.”

Nolan mutters something unintelligible.

“Okay,” Kat says.

Sunshine rolls her eyes and exits the room. “We’re walking away from you.”

“Anyway,” Nolan continues, pushing past them to lead, “Uh, so, this is the guest bedroom.” He opens the last door on the left side of the hallway, revealing a stark white room with a white bed, old hanging pictures, and a white dresser. “As you can see, it’s, uh..”

“It’s cute,” Kat finishes. “I like it.”

“ _Pretty_ ,” he says. “This is where I used to stay.”

Sunshine observes the mirror, squinting. There doesn’t seem to be anything that bad here, or at least in her field of vision. Maybe Nolan’s grandma’s house isn’t haunted after all.

“Yeah.. I think it’s responsible for a lot of my masculinity.” Now, Sunshine can tell he’s being sarcastic, only because he _knows_ he’s a pussy. He shrugs his black leather jacket over his shoulders, “you know, the strong, silent type that I...” He trails off and turns to the last door on the right side of the hallway.

“Agreed,” Sunshine mutters while following.

“So, this is my grandmother’s bedroom. _But_ ,” He raises a hand, staring at both of them, “in the interest of privacy, I don’t think that we need—” Sunshine opens the door, “—Okay. No, please—” He gives up.

“I feel like we need to explore the _whole_ house if we’re gonna really do this right,” Sunshine says in an amused sing-song voice, turning the light on and panning her camera around. It has more mild colors than the continuous white of the other rooms, but keeps the same old lady decor. 

“I guess I can’t argue with you there,” Nolan grudgingly agrees.

“Pretty cute,” Kat adds, and Sunshine finds it hilarious that her mother’s been able to go this long without really talking or making fun of Nolan. 

Sunshine sways by the tan curtains and eyes the headboard of the bed, “It’s very... nice.”

“Very nice,” Kat nods.

“Your grandma can decorate.”

“Well, yeah.” Nolan shrugs and slides open the bathroom door, “Now. I don’t know if anything’s gonna happen, but if it does, it’ll happen while you’re around. That’s my theory.”

“Good theory,” Sunshine says, then turns the camera to show her rolling her eyes.

“Strange things,” Nolan goes on, “slamming doors... my grandma’s a total, uh, a total—”

“Where’d my mom go?” Sunshine asks, because when she looks around Kat isn’t there. Her heart begins to pump heavily in her chest and it feels like the blood is draining out of her body. Memories of the exorcism come to mind, flashes of fangs and claws, thunder rolling up above and lightning streaking in the clouded skies. _No, no, please, please..._

“Uh.” Nolan doesn’t notice her slight panicking and whips his head from side to side, narrowing his eyes. “Hey, Kat?” They’re back in the hallway now, and no answer comes.

“Mom?” Sunshine’s voice comes out high-pitched and slightly broken.

“Kat?” Nolan calls again, poking his head into the guest bedroom. Sunshine looks down the hall, past the bathroom and into the living room. Something is wrong. _She was right behind us!_ Attempting to soothe her nerves, “She’s probably in the kitchen eating more Cheetos.”

Nolan beguns to walk that way. Suddenly, Kat jumps out from behind the wall and screams, “Bah!” Nolan rears back and nearly throws Sunshine to the ground, hands flinging into the air. He gasps in shock and ignores both women’s laughing, biting his lip in annoyance. Kat claps her hand and jumps around like a little kid.

Sunshine doesn’t mention the terror she’d been feeling earlier. Better not.

“Hey!” he finally exclaims after catching his breath, following Kat into the middle of the kitchen and living room, “no, that’s not funny, come _on_ , like if that—” His hands drop to his sides and he pushes his brows together, clearly very agitated. “Kat, how are we supposed to find a real ghost if you’re pretending to be a ghost? That’s not—” He waves his hands by his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Kat grins and claps again, laughing. 

“You two, come on,” he orders.

“What are we doing?” Sunshine laughs. “Are you gonna tell us?” Kat sits down on the couch and she joins her mother, eyeing Nolan.

“Tell you _what_ ,” he mutters. 

“Tell us,” she insists.

“Tell you what?” He pulls up a chair and watches both of them.

“A history of the house!” Kat begs, “you said it’s _haunted_!”

“It _is_ haunted,” he nods. Nolan leans his shoulders forward and rests his hands on top of his legs. “Probably.”

“It’s all you,” Kat sighs.

“I’m telling you, guys, you don’t need to— just—” Nolan leans back and scratches his nose, sighing. “Okay, you wanna hear it?” He pushes a pillow to his side and crosses his legs. “You wanna hear it? Alright.” Nolan points to both of them. “But when you hear it, you can’t unhear it.”

Sunshine can’t tell if he’s trying to be funny or not. If so, it isn’t working. “Okay,” she responds, just hoping he gets on with it.

“Okay,” he finally continues, “So the year is 1947.” Nolan crosses his legs and averts his gaze between the two women. “It’s a nice town, people like each other, white picket fences. You know, all the good 50s stuff. And there’s this guy, his name— his name’s Frederic Loren. Right. And..”

Sunshine and Kat exchange a glance. This already sounds... great.

Nolan looks away, thinking hard. “He’s— he’s a nice guy, he’s a little bit of an oddball, he has an odd sense of humor, and he has this wife... that nobody ever sees. And— um— you guys don’t want to hear this.” He scrunches up his nose and shifts in the chair, waving a hand at them. “It’s— it’s gross.”

“Well, now we kind a have to...” Kat trials off.

Sunshine nods. “You already started, you have to finish.”

He sighs heavily and dramatically. _Oh, brother.._ “Alright, so, basically, one day, somebody— somebody anonymously reported the police that they saw this Frederic Loren dragging a body into his house, or what they thought might be a body.”

“Into the house,” Kat attempts to confirm.

Nolan sucks his teeth. “Uh-huh.”

“Wait, _this_ house?”

His frown deepens. “Yeah.”

“Okay...”

“Now, this is— this is a nice town,” he goes on, “everybody knows each other, _everybody_ likes Frederic Loren. Right, so, the police don’t take it seriously. A couple days later, somebody else goes missing. So they have to. So, uh, they send a deputy out and, uh, y’know, they don’t hear back from him. Time goes by and—” Nolan clears his throat, “the sheriff gets worried, so he sends out a, uh, he sends out another deputy that doesn’t do any better.

He realizes there’s something going on. So, he, uh, he drives himself and a shotgun to the house and knocks on the door. A thin voice says to him, y’know, ‘Come in!’ Yeah? And he does come in, and there’s a guy in there, a tall, lanky guy, wearing a white mask and coveralls.”

“What...?” Sunshine mutters.

“And uh, he’s— he’s got these, uh, deputies strung up from the ceiling, and he’s got a blowtorch in his hands, and he’s burning the fat off of these guys into a...” Nolan spreads his hands out. “Into a pot, right—” He laughs, “this is Frederic Loren in his own house, _boiling_ people into pots and he, and he turns to the sheriff and he goes, ‘You should come back later, and I will be done.’ 

Frederic Loren gets arrested. He’s laughing the whole time they take him to the vehicle, the sheriff calls for backup, and they search the house and they find a trapdoor to these, uh, underground rooms, like catacombs or something, and uh, there’s a very particular layout of these rooms. There’s this skin at the back, like a human pelt, pinned up like a trophy, and in each room there’s a vat of _fat_.

Now, it’s been a while, and one would assume because all of these vats have solidified— bacon grease— the exception of a couple in the back. Which are empty. So the police look around and they find— they find a thin, _very_ thin, little corpse. No arms. No legs. Next to an empty vat. Next to the vat as well, there’s a little note, written presumably by Frederic Loren. It just says, ‘Drink up, my dear, you’re looking thin. Drink the whole thing.’”

Nolan shifts in his seat and suddenly jerks back into— well, _normal_ him, not story-telling him, and shrugs. “So yeah, that’s the tale. You’re welcome.”

Sunshine’s mouth is dropped open. “ _Ew_.” She repeats this several times as she walks into the kitchen to— what, wash her hands? Nolan rolls his eyes and points his thumb to her.

“What kind of Luiseach are you? Come on,” he criticizes.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew!”

“I’m gonna go get another snack,” Kat grunts.

Well. That went great.


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the night goes on, the ghost activity spikes. Nolan decides they should play Bloody Mary.

_“Ew, ew ew...!”_

“All right, all right, it’s okay—” Kat fumbles with the camera and frowns when Sunshine buries her face in her hands, pacing the kitchen. “It’s not dead bodies in the wall, all right?”

“It’s skin,” Sunshine retorts and fans herself with a hand.

“No, okay, all right, it’s just a story, we don’t know if anything he says is _true_. He could just be making this up to impress you.”

Nolan interrupts them as he wavers near the dining room table, looking off to the side and into the living room. “Question. Nobody listens to _me_ , right?” He off-handedly glances in their direction, but not at them.

“Okay,” Kat counters, “that was really a gross story, all right, we’re just kind of thinking—”

“It’s not like I made it up!” Nolan says, shrugging his shoulders defensively. “I’m sorry, you guys remember you wanted to know about the.. thing..? And I was like, no, no, no, and you went yes, yes, yes!” He spreads his hands forward and mimics them in a high voice. “And I tell it, and you’re all like—“

“Yes, we sound like that.” Sunshine rolls her eyes.

“No, and you’re a jerk!” Nolan continues mocking, wiping a hand over his mouth. “Well, look, don’t be worried, it’ll be okay, uh.. my grandma has always been...”

Sunshine looks at the camera.

“..I mean, happy, here. There’s never been, really a— an instance of any great magnitude, you know, it’s mostly just, y’know, little... temperature changes, you know what I mean.” Nolan walks behind them and stands next to the cupboard. Sunshine stares at him. “The house was torn down and was rebuilt.”

Neither of them say anything.

“Look,” Nolan stresses, “all I’m thinking is that, it’s like, y’know, the victims.” He spreads his arms to his sides. 

Sunshine drops her hands. “Okay,” she says shortly, “the ghosts, yeah.”

“All right, it’s— there’s gonna be—” He pauses, staring into the distance. He’s thinking, Sunshine can tell, and the clear-strung hesitation isn’t making her feel any better. She’s _sorry_ for feeling disgusted at that story, but honestly, who wouldn’t? For starters, she’s literally _standing_ over where there were dead bodies, and now she knows what that deep, pulsing fear in her gut was about. Frederick Loren is making her feel this way.

“No, what did you just—” Sunshine sighs heavily and palms her face, stressing out.

“You just had a moment,” Kat observes, pushing her brows together.

Nolan walks back to the chicken dresser, placing his hands on the counter. “Well, I’m just—” He frowns. “Thinkin’ that— well, I mean, you’re a Luiseach.”

“Well.” Kat hums. “We don’t know.”

“I think so, I think so,” Nolan continues to ramble, ignoring Sunshine glancing up at him as she leans on her arms. “What I’m— cause I’ve never seen anything horrible here, but... I guess I’ve never had a Luiseach in the house. I’m curious as to whether we run into _Freddy_.”

“No,” Sunshine mumbles. She doesn’t _want_ to run into Freddy.

Kat, still holding the camera, puffs out a breath of air. “So what are you thinking— that because she _might_ be this Luiseach, that the more... violent..? entities may come out? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“I think we’re fine, we’re fine,” Nolan says with a smile, but Sunshine can tell he’s just trying to shrug it off and convince himself they’re safe here. Well, news flash, they’re _not_. God, Sunshine feels sick.

“It’s what you thought, isn’t it?” she asks in a low voice. 

“I’m just saying—” Nolan shrugs again, black leather jacket rippling. “You know, what’s—”

A loud bang crashes in the hallway, causing all three to snap their heads toward the sound. Kat sucks in a breath and Nolan freezes. Sunshine can feel her blood become cold, speckles of ice trickling down her spine.

“Okay, _what_ was that?” Kat asks.

“Don’t worry about that, it’s fine, just stuff— uh. A draft.” Nolan mumbles something incoherent as he strides into the large doorway, poking his head into the hallway. He observes the living room, fingers clenching. 

“Was there a window open?” Kat demands, padding after Sunshine. “If there’s not a window open, there’s not a draft, _where are you going?_ ”

Nolan slowly creeps into the hallway, holding out a palm to signal Sunshine to stop. “Stay right— there, okay?” His voice shakes and Sunshine continues walking forward, heart beating out of her chest. The hallway is swathed in shadows, darkness looming over their heads, and she can hear the thunder, see the flashes of lightning over her head, she can see the bloody handprints smeared over the door, and, and—

 _Get it together, Sunshine!_ she hisses in her head. _You’ve been through too much to pussy out now! You’ve seen little children ghosts, you’ve watched doors slam right in front of you, you’ve nearly been a victim in an exorcism with your mother— are you a little bitch? No. No, you aren’t. Come on. Do it. Look down that goddamn hallway with strength. Don’t let the fear overtake you._

“Uh, _heck_ no,” Kat growls, hiding behind Sunshine as she crosses to Nolan’s left side. 

“We’re fine,” Nolan mutters again, staring at the light down the end of the hall. Sunshine doesn’t remember them leaving any lights on. “It’s cool, it..—”

“Wait...” Her mother shakes her head, breathing heavily. Nolan leads the way down the hallway, Sunshine close behind, Kat even closer.

“Okay, well, that—” Nolan is interrupted.

“Why are we going down there?” Kat snaps. 

“I think it was that doorway.” He rubs his hand down his face again, standing still. “I left all the doors open.” Sunshine can see the light flooding through on one side, then the shut door on the other. 

“Why are we— ugh.” Her mother gives up.

“Just— just—” Nolan turns around and pushes his hands forward. “ _Chillax. Please._ ”

Nolan takes about thirty seconds at the closed door, anxiously moving back and forth to try and figure out what to do. Sunshine sighs heavily. No biggie, they’re just in the house with a _murderous_ ghost.. 

“Okay,” he breathes, and finally clicks open the door. The light’s on in the bedroom, too. Nolan turns around with a toothy smile. “We’re fine.” It drops as he turns to enter. “It’s just, a— I told you it was just a draft.”

“Okay,” Sunshine finally whispers, not wholly convinced that it’s a draft but too terrified to argue. “It’s just a draft.”

“Yeah.” Nolan waves his arm, nonchalant. “Let’s go in the kitchen, I don’t like it.” He hugs his jacket closer to his body, shivering. “Okay. Let’s just close this one.” He clicks the door shut and cringes at the dark hallway, only a stream of light coming from the bedroom across. “Let’s close _all_ the doors! I don’t like any of these doors to be— you know— so—”

Sunshine gasps in fright when something whispers in her ear. All she can see is darkness around her, after Nolan closes all the doors, and remembers the ghost— the _demon_ — that had shoved her into the bathroom and burned the picture of the bagged father and daughter. 

She rushes out of the hallway and into the light, oxygen sliding into her lungs. Sunshine stumbles to the side and the voices around her blur, as does her vision. 

“We’re fine,” she can hear Nolan say.

Sunshine leans against the chicken dresser, breathing heavily.

“It’s fine,” Nolan continues, standing in the doorway. “Uh, that was— it’s drafty in there, right?”

“A draft doesn’t _talk_!” Kat snaps.

⠀⠀⠀  
⠀⠀⠀  
⠀⠀⠀  
Ten minutes later, Kat finally begins a conversation. “This is what we wanted, we said— we said we were coming here to find out if the spirits come out if the Luiseach is here, and now we’re cowering in the kitchen.”

Sunshine is holding the camera, which shows Nolan sitting hunched over in the chair, and Kat exhausted, staring forward.

“I used to like this place _so much_ ,” Nolan whispers, not looking at either of them. He raises his gaze. “You know, it was so—”

“This was your idea to come here!” Kat exclaims.

“Ehhhhhhh...”

Kat leans forward and claps in his face. “Get it together, Nolan, focus!” He sits up and nods along, face determined yet slightly blank. “What are we gonna do? What do you wanna do, do you want to get the Ouija board out of the car, do we want..”

“No,” Sunshine says coldly.

Kat sighs.

“Um, we could...” Nolan trails off.

“Okay, on all the shows, they— do— callouts—” Kat continues.

“Okay,” he perks up, “what if we provided some sort of _offering_.” He dramatically looks at them. Sunshine doesn’t like that word.

“Like a sacrifice?” Kat says incredulously. Sunshine doesn’t like that word, either.

“No—”

“We’re sacrificing Nolan tonight, guys,” Sunshine concludes.

“I’m talking like—” Nolan drops his arms. “Uh, cookies, like— cheese—”

Kat looks back at Sunshine with a confused and stupefied expression. 

“We’re not allowed to use your grandma’s food, remember?” Sunshine sneers.

“This is _important_!” For once, Nolan raises his voice and leaves both women reeling in shock. 

Kat quickly gathers herself once more. “You apparently never watch ghost hunter shows.”

“They speak to them sometimes! Talk to them!” Sunshine offers.

“All right, tell me what— tell me what we should do.” He looks at Kat tiredly. 

“I don’t know!” she says. “Do we—”

“They talk to them— they call them out!” she repeats unhelpfully.

“When— when we were at the beach,” Kat looks at her daughter, “and we said—”

“I got it! I got it!” Nolan points at the two of them. “Bloody Mary. Have you guys ever played Bloody Mary?”

“ _Bloody Mary_?” Sunshine crosses her arms.

“I’ve never played Bloody Mary, you know why? Cause I’m _scared_ of it! Perfect!” A pause. “Okay, we— we say Bloody Mary eight times—”

“Three,” Sunshine corrects.

Kat shakes her head, “ _Wait_ ,”

“It’s eight times!”

“It’s _three_!” Sunshine says.

“Come on, we’re never gonna— no ghost is gonna be like, all right, three times, then pop out, otherwise, there would be ghosts all over the place, all right?” Nolan bites his lip. “No, no, no, it’s _eight_ times—”

Kat exchanges a glance with Sunshine.

“—and then—”

“It’s three right?” her mother asks. “Sunshine?”

“It’s _three_ ,” she confirms over Nolan’s rambling.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nolan continues. “Just keep sayin’ it till something shows up, right?”

“Okay, but, doesn’t that require, like, a bathroom and a mirror and...?” Sunshine frowns.

Nolan grits his teeth. “Well, we have one of those.”

Yeah. They’re fine. They’re _fine_ , Nolan keeps saying, as he leads all of them to the back bathroom. They’re _fine_ , Nolan says as they enter the room, preparing to perform an ancient ritual that will apparently summon a demon. Yeah. Fine.

“This is my grandma’s, though,” Nolan says anxiously, looking into the bathroom that Kat’s already entered. “She _likes_ this bathroom—”

“ _Go_ ,” Sunshine says, pushing Nolan inside. She follows behind him and ignores his glare. Kat closes the shower curtain— for, y’know, safe measure— wait, “Why do you feel the need to close those?”

“I don’t know, I just—” Kat groans and Nolan reaches behind her to shut the door. Great. They’re in a bathroom, ready to speak to Mary Bloody or whatever the hell her name is. 

Nolan dramatically clears his throat. 

“Okay, do we have to turn the lights off, is that what we do?” Kat asks.

“It’s _not_ much bigger,” Sunshine sighs, wishing they could’ve just gone to the front bathroom instead. But _no_ , this one was _bigger_. Bullshit. They needed a quick escape if Frank came! Or Freddy! Or... hell, she didn’t even care about his name.

“Okay,” Nolan begins, “you turn the lights off, you say Bloody Mary eight times—” 

“ _Three_ ,” Sunshine growls.

“—two waltzing ghosts come out, all right, and they sing, uh, the song, uh—”

“It’s _three_!” she snaps again.

“Wagner! They sing Wagner!”

Sunshine can’t help but laugh. “No they don’t!” Kat just stares at Nolan, dumbfounded.

“God,” Nolan sighs, “my whole childhood was just a web of lies—”

Kat reaches over and turns the lights off.

“All right, we’re fine,” he says again. Sunshine needs to start marking how many times Nolan repeats that line.

Only the red light of the camera reflects in the dark mirror. Sunshine can’t see anything, but is slightly comforted in hearing her mother’s and Nolan’s voices. She’s not alone, not like the last time she was locked in a dark bathroom. 

“So... who’s... gonna say it?” Kat mumbles.

“You know, I— I’ve heard that if guys say it that it, uh, that it makes it not as effective—”

“Okay!” Sunshine sighs with exasperation. “I’ll say it, geez, Nolan.” He begins to exhale heavily, right over her goddamn neck. “Can you stop _breathing_ so heavy?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he tries to comfort. Oh, right, he’s only comforting himself.

“You’re shaking!” Sunshine replies in an annoyed voice.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes— okay, shut up.” She sighs shortly and stares at the red ball of light, training her eyes on that and only that. At least she’s holding her camera. Hah. This is... familiar territory. “Bloody Mary—”

“Okay,” Nolan intrudes, “wait a minute, wait a minute—”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Sunshine growls.

“I— I just wanna— okay, I just wanted to let you guys know I— I’ve had a _really_ great time, a _really_ great time—”

“Nothing’s gonna happen, Nolan,” Sunshine says firmly, “can you just—”

“Yes it is! I can feel it!”

“Nolan.”

“Okay, sorry, go.”

“Are you sure?” Kat whispers.

“Go,” Nolan repeats. “Do it, do it.”

“If I _start_ , I have to do all three, okay?” Sunshine snaps, “I’m doin’ all three now.”

“Do it now,” he sighs.

Sunshine breathes in again. 

“It’s good.”

She rolls her eyes and relaxes her shoulders. “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!” Her voice raises in pitch with each word until she’s left shaking to the core.

And yet, nothing happens.

“See, I told you it wouldn’t work,” Nolan says smugly.

“I told you it was _three_ ,” she grumbles.

“You guys were wrong.”

Sunshine sighs and squints when Nolan turns the lights back on.

“Okay,” Kat shrugs. 

“Perfect.” Nolan smiles.

“That was really... efficient.” She mumbles. Nolan appears to just be standing at the door, not opening it, and Sunshine’s getting annoyed. “What are you doing?” she and Kat say in unison.

“Um—” Nolan’s voice shakes as he pushes his weight against the door. Every time he tries to turn the knob, it clicks back into place, slamming the wind back in their faces.

“Okay,” Kat says anxiously, “What was that?”

A high-pitched ringing sounds in Sunshine’s ears and deafens the world around her. She recognizes that horrid, gut-wrenching feeling again, anxiety pushing down on her chest. She can’t breathe. She can’t breathe! Something is wrong.

Nolan tries the door again, and the lights suddenly cut out. Everyone screams and Sunshine is brought back into the present, heart beating irregularly. 

“Hey!” he yells. “Hey!”

“Turn on the light!” Kat exclaims.

“I— I don’t like—” Nolan rams his body up against the door, and the lights flicker back on over their head, the demonic ringing worsening in Sunshine’s ears. She sees flashes of a white-masked face behind the shower curtain, black goggles peering back at her. She screams, tears running down her cheeks, the terror returning. She remembers what this feels like. She remembers what it feels like to be _helpless_.

Nolan barges through the door, Sunshine thinks, so she wastes no time running after him— “Jesus Christ!” he says in a shaking voice— out of the room and through the hallway, stumbling into the living room.

“What was that?” Sunshine finally whispers, gripping her maroon jacket and pulling it close to her body. Nolan is angrily pacing somewhere in the kitchen. “Wh— what’s happening?” The ringing is becoming worse, echoing in her ears, and she can’t _think_.

“Sweetie?” A soft hand grips her shoulder and slowly pulls her forward. Her mother. “Are you okay?”

“Are we all still alive?” Nolan asks, eyes watering. He’s not completely crying, but his voice breaks with every syllable. His hands are on his head, stressfully pushing his ashen-brown hair from his face.

“No, we all _died_ ,” Sunshine sarcastically snaps. 

“It—” Nolan shakes his head and scrunches his face. “It was to be _expected_. She’s a— we’re fine, ‘cause she’s got the— yeah.”

“You okay?” Kat repeats, worriedly staring at her daughter. Sunshine nods but doesn’t completely understand what happened or what’s going on.

“My grandma’s gonna be so mad,” Nolan worries, standing near the couch. 

Anger. “Your _grandma’s_ gonna be _mad_?” She glares at Nolan. Does he not understand what just happened?

Yeah... apparently he doesn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is actually fun to write bc you know ya girl loves the whole gang together they never fail to make me laugh. and then this whole frank loren think is even better and just ahhh writing this again is refreshing...
> 
> hope u enjoyed thx lovelies
> 
> oh also nolan’s _‘we’re/i’m fine’_ count: 10


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine explores, something happens to Nolan, and an old friend makes an appearance.

“Okay, so...” Kat spreads her hands out as Nolan aggressively rips off his jacket. “No more.. anything. No Bloody Mary, nothing, I think we should just chill for a little while and just— be here. What do you think?”

Nolan blows out a gust of air, hunching down next to Kat on the couch. Sunshine sits near the hallway, filming both of them while she perches on a wooden chair.

“Okay,” she agrees.

“Yeah.” Kat nods. “Yeah.”

They spend about thirty minutes kicking back and, well, honestly not doing much. Sunshine grabs the Cheetos from the kitchen and plops down next to her mother, since Nolan has moved to the big wooden chair. Nolan then asks if his hair looks okay and checks it in the mirror.

They then talk a little about what happened in the bathroom, but it’s mostly Nolan rambling about his theories and how ‘they’re fine.’ The time continues to tick on until Sunshine grabs her camera, lips pursed into a thin line.

“I’m bored,” she concludes. “So, I’m gonna go explore the house.” A pause when neither Kat nor Nolan move. “By myself.”

“Oh, wait,” Nolan stirs, blinking open his tired eyes, “don’t go.” He makes no move to follow her, though.

Her mother is passed out on the chair, unmoving.

Sunshine enters the front bathroom, narrowing her eyes. “Why is this bathroom so white?” she mutters to herself, turning on the light. “I’m officially afraid of mirrors.” She can’t shake away the flash of the white mask and black goggles peering back at her from behind the shower curtain. Even though she’s spent time calming down, it greatly unnerves her. She doesn’t really want to think about it, but here she is, standing in front of another mirror.

Wonderful.

“Okay,” she breathes out, attempting to calm herself. She leaves a small lamp light on and turns the overhead bathrooms light off, exiting the room and glancing down the hallway. She frowns at the wide open door to Nolan’s grandmother’s room. _I’d rather save the best for last..._ she remarks sarcastically.

“Creepy den,” Sunshine comments, pacing away from the cave and to the guest bedroom — or, Nolan’s bedroom? “I’m not going in there.” However, she decides to not pussy out and does so anyway, looking around at the blue-painted walls and cute bed tucked in the corner. It’s nice, she muses. “I like this room. It’s pretty.”

The camera always comforts her, even if it sounds weird talking to... well, _herself_. She supposed she does have an audience, though, just not right _now_.

Sunshine steps out of the guest bedroom and stares into grandma’s, hesitating. “I’m afraid to go in here.” She kind of hopes her mother or Nolan will grudgingly stand and follow her, but of course, they don’t.

This vaguely reminds her of Creepy Guy’s house, except... well, there’s no Creepy Guy chasing her. 

When she enters the room, that high-pitched ringing echoes in her ears. She hunches over slightly, caught off guard, but decides to continue anyway. Sunshine grips the camera with more force as it faces towards her, a puff of air blowing out of her teeth. She doesn’t like this. She doesn’t like being alone in here. It... it’s unnerving.

She’s happy she did it, and she almost smiles at that, then wonders if she should go into the bathroom. Nolan’s singing in the other room calms her down only slightly. Just kidding. It doesn’t, at all. Is that... Eye of the Tiger? Whatever. She needs to keep going.

The closet door closes in front of her and Sunshine can’t help but gasp. She slowly moved forward, breath growing heavier. She pans the camera around the room, palms beginning to sweat, and the sharp ringing has cut off any sort of noise from the living room— all she can hear is herself.

Sunshine eventually turns to face the bathroom mirror and cries out when the white-masked figure stands behind the bed, peering into the mirror with her. She whips around, trembling, but sees nothing. 

Then the sounds of the world come rushing to her. She hears a horrible, loud choking from the living room, and hears Kat screaming for help. Sunshine runs down the hallway— “What?!” — and makes it to the others, where she sees Kat bent over Nolan.

He’s writhing on the couch, hands clawing at his chest, and flops to the ground. His soft grunts sound more like pained wheezes, and Kat gapes at him, mouth dropped open. 

“What’s happening?” Sunshine cries, moving to stand beside her mother. 

“I don’t know!” Kat exclaims. “He just started choking!” 

Nolan’s hands move up to his throat, like he’s trying to rip something away from him. However, nothing’s there. 

“I don’t know what to do!” Sunshine sobs, letting the tears fall. Nolan — Nolan is choking. Nolan is _dying_! “What do you want me to—”

“Do something!” Kat yells.

“I can’t do anything!”

“Make it stop!”

Sunshine feels like she can’t breathe. “Go away!” she screams, hands shaking. Her eyes widen when Nolan’s hands drop and he begins to suck in air, coughing hoarsely. He pushes his forehead into the ground and Kat bends forward, resting an arm on his elbow. 

Nolan starts to sob. “Wh— what the—” He can’t hold back the tears and lifts his head up, leaning against a foot rest. 

“It’s okay,” Kat comforts, holding his arms and gently helping him to his feet. “It’s okay, come on. Sit down.” Nolan stumbles on to the table and claws at his head, brushing his hair back stressfully. He looks around, breathing harshly, like he doesn’t exactly know where he is.

“Are you okay?” Kat whispers. Sunshine hangs back, unsure of what to do. She... she’s never really had to comfort others during a ghost attack. It was always _her_. 

Nolan glances up at Kat in pure terror before it’s masked by something less severe. He palms his way to the couch and furiously rubs at his eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” he splutters.

“Nolan,” Sunshine manages in a soft voice, “are you okay?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know, I don’t, I don’t—” He looks down, trying to breathe. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Nolan does that thing where he shrugs it off and tries to appear relaxed and fine, but Sunshine can tell he isn’t. I mean — he was just _attacked_ , for Christ’s sake.

“Nolan,” she tries again.

“Yeah?” he asks, but doesn’t look at her, trying to shift on the couch. “What, _what_?”

“What happened?”

“I’m fine.”

“What _happened_?”

“I’m _fine_!” He glares at her, eyes dark. Her chest constricts. Hurt. “All right? Jesus.”

Kat worriedly glances at her daughter.

“I was— I don’t know, okay?” he says in a lower voice.

“Okay...”

The time passes again. It has to be at least five minutes before everyone’s calmed down, but Nolan is still looking annoyed and shocked at what just happened to him.

“Okay, so..” Kat frowns. “Nolan, are you— are you okay?”

He’s holding his hand to his forehead, the other wrapped around his abdomen defensively. He takes a moment to reply, but eventually offers a small, “Yeah.” A pause. “Yeah,” he repeats louder, blinking slowly.

“Okay, so, it’s time to go.” Kat nods, and damn it, Sunshine can see the full _Mom Mode_ come out.

Nolan looks around before his eyes land on Kat. “No, come on,” he says.

“Yeah.”

“Come on! I mean..”

“No, we need— to leave.” Kat looks serious, and for once, Sunshine agrees with her. This is a bad place. Fred— he’s got them wrapped around his little dead finger, and she’s not here for it. Not anymore. “It’s not safe here. _Obviously_.” Kat eyes the place where Nolan had been desperately writhing on the ground.

“We’ve got someone with us who can help,” Nolan tries optimistically. Oh. He’s talking about her.

Kat frowns. “We don’t know that, okay? I know— I know that you think that she has something special—”

“I _know_ that she does—”

“—and, no, we don’t, we _don’t_ know that, and— if she really doesn’t have a way to protect us,” she motions to Sunshine, “then we’re just three people who are in a house in _way_ over our heads, with obviously a very, very violent entity.”

“Kat. Kat.”

Her mother shakes her head. “Nolan— it’s not safe.”

“Kat. It’s my grandma’s house, Kat.”

“You said nothing happened,” Kat responded, “with your grandma.”

“That was _before_.” Nolan grits his teeth and spreads a hand in Sunshine’s direction. “And now we’ve got something different, all right?”

“We don’t know that if your grandma comes back and Sunshine’s not here that— that these things will continue.”

“So what do we do, we, we leave? We leave the house?” Nolan looks angry. “Now? Like it is? For my _grandma_ to come back to? No! Come on.”

Kat sighs, trying to find a compromise. “You can stay with her, and if something happens—”

“I can’t do anything.”

A sigh.

“You _know_ I can’t do anything!” Nolan’s voice breaks, and Sunshine understands that helplessness. 

“It’s not— we— we can’t stay, Nolan, it’s not safe, look what just happened to you!”

“Come on, it was— yeah, what happened?”

Kat scoffs. “You— you were choked!

“I _know_ , I _know_ I was choked, Kat—”

“So we need to leave!”

Nolan drops his hands. “What happened— what _happened_?”

“You were choked.”

“What happened when Sunshine came back?” He stares at Kat, and Sunshine realizes Nolan’s right. She’d told Frederick, presumably, to go away, and he’d _listened_.

Kat’s at a loss for words.

“What about that?!”

“I don’t think that had anything to do with Sunshine,” Kat weakly says.

“I think it did.” Nolan looks determined. “I think it did.”

Kat glances at her daughter, who’s still sitting on the floor. “What do you think?”

“What...?” Sunshine is confused.

“I think we need to leave.”

She breathes. “I know I don’t want to, but.. clearly _you_ think we should, so.” Her voice drops, defeated. Her mom’s probably right.

“I don’t think it’s safe,” Kat continues.

“Then let’s go.”

“We’re not _done_ here, okay?” Nolan whispers, eyes wide. “Please?”

“We need to go...” Kat murmurs.

He sighs. “Fine. Fine. Let’s go, just give me a minute, okay?” Nolan stands slowly, legs wobbling, but he manages to get there on his own. He makes his way to the bathroom, and once out of earshot, Kat frowns.

“I’m sorry.”

A loud grunt from Nolan and a bang cause both women to jump in their place. Sunshine runs into the hallway and nearly screams when she sees the white-masked figure dragging Nolan to the back bedroom. A loud, staticky screeching rumbles in her ears and she can hardly hear. All she sees is Nolan desperately clawing the wall, and she knows she can’t let this happen.

“Let him go!” she snarls.

The figure drops Nolan and raises its body up, staring at both of them. Sunshine rushes forward and drops to Nolan, breathing heavily. “Nolan!” 

When they look up, Frederick is gone.

“Are you okay?” Kat gasps. 

“Nolan?” Sunshine tries again when he doesn’t answer. He’s just staring at the ceiling, twitching slightly. He begins to yell when he sees both of them and starts laughing when he realizes it’s just Kat and Sunshine.

“It’s gone,” her mother confirms.

Nolan groans— “Wha?”— and lets Kat pick him up by his underarms. He staggers into the wall, trying to position his weight correctly. “What, are you done?!” he yells into his grandmother’s room. Oh. Now he’s talking to the murderous ghost. Wonderful.

“Wait—” Kat splutters.

“Are you _done_?” Nolan’s voice wavers as he stands in the doorway to the room.

“What are you doing, what is he doing?!” Kat looks back at Sunshine. “Nolan, we need to _leave_!”

He laughs again, slowly limping into the white room, glancing around. The closet door slams shut and Nolan stares at it, ignoring Sunshine and Kat’s gasps.

“What?” he sneers, “you think that I’m scared of you? _Come on_!”

“Nolan,” Sunshine yells, “Nolan!”

“What?” he growls.

“Just... calm down.” She walks up to him, concerned. 

Nolan buries his face in his hands, trying to suck in air. Kat crosses his side and sets her hand on his back comfortingly. “Come on,” she attempts, “just... sit down, relax.” She shoves a box off of the old red chair and gently steers Nolan into it, “Okay?” Kat looks at Sunshine. “He’s obviously not going anywhere for a minute.”

Yeah. Looks like they’re just gonna sit around the haunted room, where the ringing echoes in Sunshine’s ears. But that’s not what surprises her— it’s the whispers of a man, filling the room up like a bowl. It’s even audible over Nolan’s loud whimpering. “Do you hear that?” she asks. No one replies. “You really don’t hear that?”

Kat looks at her. “Yeah, I hear Nolan freaking out!” She turns back to him. “Deep breaths.”

Sunshine stumbles back. “No, it’s— it’s really loud..” 

“What is?” Kat whispers, still holding Nolan and trying to stop him from continuously sobbing. She leans up. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a man’s voice,” Sunshine murmurs. 

Nolan cries out.

“Do you mean other than Nolan?” Kat backs away slowly. “What? What’s he saying?”

“He misses his wife...” Sunshine whispers, wincing. Nolan looks at her.

“ _What_?”

“He misses his wife,” she repeats, then steps on the bed. “It’s louder up here.” A pause. “No... it sounds like it’s— coming from down here.” She slowly moves herself to the curtains on the far side of the bed. 

“ _I miss my wife_ ,” a raspy voice speaks out.

“I think it’s coming from down here...” She looks at the floor and screams when the white mask slowly pushes itself out from under the bed, thick black goggles peering back at her. Sunshine jumps away and scrambles next to Kat and Nolan. “He’s under the bed, he’s under the bed!”

“What do you mean he’s _under the bed_?” Kat rushes to the side.

Sunshine begins to cry. “He’s _under_ the _bed_.”

Her arms splay out at her side. “What’s under the bed?!”

“The man! He’s under the bed!” Sunshine yells. Kat is about to bend down and take a look, but then the lights cut off, showering darkness over all of them. Sunshine screams when she hears a deep, gurgling moaning from the other side of the room.

“What the _hell_?” Kat hisses

“ _Nolan_!” she yells, fearing for her friend’s safety.

A pause. “What— what?” he splutters, clearly out of it and not really understanding what’s going on.

“Nolan,” Kat breathes. “Okay, listen, you need to go— figure out— the circuit breaker, okay?” she orders. 

“Okay, okay...”

“Get it together,” Kat claps.

“Okay.”

“Nolan, you’re the man, let’s go,” Sunshine says, hoping he’ll move it. 

“Do you have some kind of light?” Kat asks.

“Yeah, give me a minute,” he murmurs, and the chair shifts as he stands. Nolan flickers his phone light toward the bed.

“Okay, okay, good.” Sunshine still can’t see her mother or her— friend? But at least she can hear Kat’s voice. She continues. “Go find the circuit breaker and turn it on.”

No movement.

“Come _on_ , Nolan!” Sunshine yells.

“Okay,” he whispers. “Okay, we’re fine. We’re fine, give me a minute.” His phone light shines on his face as he exits the bedroom. Sunshine talks a little to her mother as they walk, but it’s so dark, she’s not even sure where everyone is. She stops in her tracks and holds her mother back. They should stay in here. She doesn’t want to go into the hallway. Kat silently agrees and sits on the bed with her.

“Okay, you know what, we’ll just— we’ll just wait right here,” Kat says, holding her daughter’s hand, “it’s okay, honey. He’s gonna get the light back on.”

“It’s fine,” Nolan says in a shaky voice as he pads to the front door. “It’s fine, there’s no one out here.” He puts his hand on the door. “Damnit. Okay.” Nolan swiftly unlocks it and swings it open, then appears to see nothing so steps out on the porch.

Sunshine can’t hear him as well, now, but that doesn’t stop his voice from carrying. “What, you think I’m scared of you?” he says, still trembling. “Huh? I’m not.”

Sure he isn’t.

“I don’t like the dark,” Sunshine murmurs back in the bedroom, pressing close to her mother. It only brings bad memories.

“It’s okay, we’re here,” Kat soothes, rubbing her thumb over Sunshine’s. “We’ve got the camera, don’t we? Why does that make us feel safer?”

She doesn’t reply, and instead focuses on ignoring the soft words whispering in her ear. Frank— Fred— whatever his name is— is just trying to freak her out. Well, she won’t be scared that easily!

“Can you hear him?” she at least asks.

“What, honey?”

“The voice. It’s back.” Sunshine closes her eyes.

“What voice?”

“It’s _back_.”

“Wh— What’s it saying?” Kat whispers.

She bites her lip. “He misses her.”

“What do you mean?”

“He misses her.”

“He misses who?” Kat grips Sunshine’s hand more tightly now.

“I don’t know... he misses his wife, I guess, or—?”

“You can _hear_ him say that?”

Sunshine turns to her mother, though she can’t even see Kat. “You _can’t_?”

“No, honey, I can’t hear anything but Nolan!”

Well, she can’t hear Nolan! “It’s so loud. He’s so loud... you really can’t hear him?”

“No...” Kat hesitates. “ _Nolan_! Hurry up!”

Nolan enters the house again, scaring both women for a moment. Sunshine relaxes after a moment. “All right, guys, guys—” He staggers over his words. “I don’t know where it is, okay? Okay?”

“Nolan!” Sunshine calls.

“What? I’m coming!”

“Nolan?”

“ _I’m coming_! I don’t need to know where a circuit breaker is!”

“ _Nolan_ ,” Sunshine whines as she stands.

He lifts his phone up to their faces and yells. Sunshine turns her head along with Kat and sees Frederick standing right behind them. Everyone flees from the bedroom, Nolan fastest of all, but the dark makes it very hard to sprint.

They make it to the living room and Sunshine stands next to him, Kat at her side. Nolan shines his phone at the corner and screams. So does Sunshine. They see a dark figure in the corner, bright eyes glinting back, black, long hair flowing down the figure’s shoulders.

“Get _out_ of my grandma’s house!” Nolan yells at the entity.

“Tell him to calm down!” Kat growls.

Sunshine stops in her tracks, heart stopping. “ _Victoria_?”

Everyone goes quiet.

Holy _shit_. She’s alive! Oh, god! Victoria is _alive_! Demon Mom didn’t kill her!

Kat smiles. “Victoria, is that you?”

Nolan is silent.

Victoria moves forward slowly, eyes flickering from Nolan, to Sunshine, to Kat. “I’m not here to hurt you,” she murmurs.

“Oh, hey,” Nolan says in a small, scared voice, trembling.

“I’m here to help,” Victoria goes on, staring at Sunshine, “I know you need my help.”

“It’s a real pleasure to meet you, by the way,” Nolan splutters. “Fan, for a long time.”

She just nods at him, then faces the women. “There’s some problems going on right now. And you know what to do.”

Sunshine shakes her head miserably. “No I don’t, I don’t know what to do..”

“ _Yes._ Yes you do.” Victoria’s voice raises as she stands in front of Sunshine, who turns her head away. “Stop it. Look at me.” Sunshine does. “You know what to do.”

“I have to talk to him, don’t I?”

“Yes. Yes, you do. You need to make him _believe_ you. Do you understand that?”

“Do I have to go alone?” Sunshine murmurs.

“What do you think?” A pause, and Victoria’s voice becomes stronger. “You can _do_ this. You have to do this.”

Sunshine breathes heavily and rips Nolan’s phone from out of his hands. She walks to grandma’s bedroom again, heart fluttering in her chest. It’s dark, and the only light is that of the phone camera, and she’s absolutely _terrified_.

Somehow, Sunshine finds strength in her voice. “You need to go away.”

The doors jiggle and slam open and shut, startling her. A low groan comes from the closet. 

“He can’t hear you!” Victoria yells from the living room.

“You need to go away now!” Sunshine cries, staring at the door that continuous to open and shut. The moaning grows louder. “Your wife’s not here! She’s moved on, and you need to too!”

It says something unintelligible. “ _Go away_!” she screams.

The groans die down, as do the moving doors. The lights cut back on over their heads and Sunshine gasps sharply, running into her mother’s arms.

“Are you okay?” Kat demands.

“Yeah,” Sunshine says weakly.

“That was _crazy_.”

“Where’s Nolan?”

“Right here.” Kat leads her back into the living room to Nolan, who’s scratching his neck. 

He smiles at Sunshine. “Hey. I’m fine.” He nods, and this time, she can tell it’s true. “I’m fine.”

Kat looks around. “Where’s Victoria?”

Nolan raises a brow and turns around. “What do you mean, she’s—” There’s no one there. “Oh, she is so _cool_.”

“Victoria?” Sunshine calls out.

No answer. Nolan giggles.

“She left,” Kat says slowly. “Unbelievable.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took me at least 2 hours to write but it was so worth it and so fun and anyway yeah stay tuned boys and girls


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine and Nolan reflect on the whole haunted grandma house experience. Anna shows up again.

So. That happened.

Sunshine’s back in safe territory. AKA, her room. She’s just woken up and decided that a video would probably please her viewers — you know, just talking about her reaction to the events that took place. Because. Um. That was some footage, wasn’t it?

Sunshine’s more confused about Victoria than anything. For starters, how the _hell_ did she get into Nolan’s grandma’s house? And second, how did she know they were there? How did she know how to stop Frederick? Then again, Victoria _had_ prevented the demon from completely taking over her mother. Still. She hasn’t seen Victoria since... well. The sighting was brief, but it was a sighting.

After that little ‘Get out!’ fiasco with Frederick the dead ghost, they’d booked it out of grandma’s house and returned back home. Nolan... well, Sunshine has no idea where he went. He walked, presumably back to his... house...? Who knows.

On another note, Nolan’s grandma was back in the house and confirmed that everything was good and dandy. Pretty solid and all that good stuff. Nolan’s okay, too, aside from whatever lasting side effects might come from being choked and dragged down a hallway by a dead murderer.

He is acting a little strange, but he’s fine, she thinks. He’s gloating like _crazy_ , since he was right about Sunshine being a Luiseach or whatever he calls it. Also, about grandma’s house being haunted. Ugh. He’s so obnoxious sometimes, but he’s a friend, and she enjoys his company.

Nolan wants to do something else— go explore a haunted house or something of the sorts— and catch it on tape, so Sunshine supposes she’s up for that. She just needs a little... personal time after the haunting they’d experienced.

Anyway. Everyone’s good. She thinks. Yeah.  
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Holy shit. Sunshine— heard Anna again. She was in the kitchen, baking some cupcakes, when she heard the girl clear as day.

“ _Be careful._ ”

It was really weird, and Sunshine doesn’t like that warning, considering last time Anna had confronted them, it had been at the hotel before her mother’s possession.

It’s also unnerving considering neither Sunshine or her mother have heard from Anna in _months_ , so. Strange. It’s gotta mean something. Maybe Nolan will know.  
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“Hey guys. So. Nolan has something he wants to... say.”

They’re sitting at the dining room table. Nolan has a smirk on his face, his elbow slung across the kitchen counter. Sunshine is slightly confused and waiting for the inevitable— his _gloating_.

Nolan throws his hands out and purses his lips. “Well I’ve... never been one to _gloat_ —”

Sunshine raises her eyebrows at the camera dubiously.

“you know, _patter on_ ,” he dramatically continues, straightening up, “but I would just like to, um, make everyone aware, once again, that there’s this— Luiseach thing, that’s uh—” He sarcastically looks around, “—somethin’ about it was... occurring and everyone was like, ‘Hey, Nolan, you’re crazy! Get out of our house.’”

Sunshine rolls her eyes and stares at his dramatic reenactments, nodding. Sure. Okay.

“And then,” he narrates dramatically, turning to smile at the camera, “we went to my grandmother’s house.”

Sunshine is looking off to the side, lips grudgingly raising into the hint of a smile. He can’t help but rub it in her face, can he?

“Well, what happened at my grandmother’s, I don’t remember, it’s fuzzy..” He pushes his brows together and looks at her.

She smiles and skeptically says, “You don’t remember?”

“Ah, man,” he shakes his head, “what happened?”

“ _Way_ to _rub it in_.”

“What happened?” He almost looks to be smiling, but it’s not fully there.

“No, I’m sure you remember,” she continues, grinning, waving her arm.

“Uh huh.”

“I’m sure you do, yeah.”

“Mm-hm. You know what happened?” He tilts his head at the camera. “Uh. A lot of bad stuff to me, first of all, that wasn’t fun.”

Sunshine snickers.

Nolan clears his throat. “Uh, but, _but_ —” He raises a finger to the camera, “—as I recall, somebody uh, saved my life, right?” He side-eyes her.

She presses her lips together sarcastically. “No, I don’t, mm-mm...”

“Don’t you remember that? There was— okay, so, there was this— there was this time uh, when I was being _choked_ by forces of the unseen—”

“ _Forces of the unseen_ ,” Sunshine echoes mockingly to the camera.

“And somebody said something like— Stop!” He moves forward and puts a palm out. Sunshine huffs out a laugh. “And then, uh, and then they _stopped_ those unseen forces, and, you know why they stopped? Because Sunshine— defender of the mortal realm—”

She giggles and Nolan smiles.

“—told them to.”

“I want my own action figure,” she smirks.

“And, uh, since then, it’s been all, uh, gravy and roses for me.” He scratches his chin.

Sunshine squints, appalled. “Did you just say... gravy and..”

Nolan talks over her as he points to the camera. “You guys probably have— you’ve never had gravy and roses?”

“No.”

“You guys have probably noticed by now that there’s something a little different about me.” He looks at Sunshine, waiting for a response, and she raises her brows. “How about you?”

“He’s really very conceited,” she whispers to the YouTube people.

“Hmm?” Nolan tilts his head, swiping a finger through his hair.

“Your.... eyebrows... are.. looking good today,” Sunshine offers.

“Hey,” he says, “that was within six inches, so I’ll give her that.”

“O...kay?”

“I got a haircut.” He smiles.

“He got a haircut,” she echoes.

“Do you like it?”

She grits her teeth in a neutral smile. “It’s okay.” A shrug. “Doesn’t look that much different.”

“That’s the same thing the barber said.” Nolan looks past her and at the wall. Oh, there it is again, he’s being _funny_.

She does laugh, though and quirks her eyebrows, but it falls into an awkward, fake chuckle. “Okay. You need to just... calm down a bit there about your hair. Anyway. _So_. Does everyone feel better now after he’s... gloated?”

He leans back to say something again, but a movement behind them catches both teens off guard. On the kitchen counter, a wooden cup with wooden spatulas drags along, then pauses. It suddenly flies to the ground with a crash, startling them again.

“Woah,” Nolan remarks.

Sunshine grabs the camera and paces toward it. “Um.”

“So _that_ happened just now.”

“Okay...”

Nolan moves near the window, looking down at the spatulas sprawled over the floor. “Oh, wow..”

“What are you _doing_ —”

“Did you see that? It just—” He moves his hands diagonally. “Shcwoo.”

“Yeah, I was... there.” Sunshine rolls her eyes.

“Do you have any open windows in here? Huh?” He smirks, because oh, paranormal activity. It drops. “No, you don’t. Nobody does in their houses—” He claps, “—it’s night and it’s fall, you know what this means? What does it mean?”

“What does it mean?” She humors him, bored.

“Come on, I want you to say it.” Nolan smiles.

“Uh. No.”

He aggressively crosses his arms and jumps. “Activity of the paramornal.” He points to her. “It’s paranormal— style— that’s what this is, and you know what that means? Further— happening in the house of a—” He tries to sit on the counter but nearly knocks something down, “—verifiable, bona fide _Luiseach_ —”

“Can you not break stuff?” she mutters.

“You know what that means? Paranormal war! Lord of the Rings style! Star Wars— Empire—”

“Oh my gosh—” Sunshine groans.

“That’s what’s happening, I can _feel_ it—”

“Just cause wooden utensils _flew_ off the counter does not mean—”

“Hey—”

“—there’s a paranormal _war_ going on.”

“An army needs weapons, right?” He spreads his palm and she follows his gaze to the wooden spatulas. Pretty shitty army, if you ask her.

“Wooden utensils?” she asks dubiously. “Are you... joking me?”

“Yes. I am— joking you— about _that_ particular part, but that means something! _Everything_ means something.” He clenches his hand into a fist. “Sunshine, everything means something.”

A long silence. “Okay,” she says.

“Yeah.”

“Feel better now?” She raises a brow.

Nolan bends down and picks up the wooden cup, placing the spatulas back inside. “I’m gonna wash all these, actually.”

“You’re gonna _wash_ all of them?”

A sigh.

“You’re gonna wash our wooden utensils?”

“I’ll just put ‘em back in a bucket and put them back on the _counter_ if you’d rather, but I’m a, I’m a _cleanly_ guy, you know?”

“Okay. Whatever.” She crosses her arms. “Okay, so what do you wanna do? Now that we’ve... discovered the... paranormal war.”

Nolan stands again and slides the wooden cup back into its place. “Well, um, y’know, as—” He clears his throat and looks at her, “— _right_ as I am, all the time, I don’t know everything.”

Sunshine nods slowly. “No waaay.”

“Neither— does thou, so, what we need to do is we need to find someone with a _little_ more technical knowledge in the field.”

“Okay...?”

“Do you know any good—” He stops and throws his arms out. “Uh, erm, paranormal— experts?”

_Oh, this again?_

She knowingly quirks her eyebrows at the camera, exasperated. _LeMaster_. “The only one I know I... don’t have great experience with, okay? They didn’t— end up— well—” She could talk about the other dead guy as well— Alistair? — but she’d rather not mention him again. Sunshine still feels guilty about all that..

It’s okay, because Nolan went on anyway. “Okay, I’ll tell you what.” He claps. “I’m gonna take off, um, I’m gonna find— I’m gonna figure somethin’ out, okay?”

“Are you.”

“Don’t worry about a thing—” He smiles and gives a thumbs up, “—I’ve got this—” Nolan stares out the window and blankly points before dropping his hand, walking out of the kitchen. “Okay.”

“Okay,” she calls.

“See you guys,” Nolan says before closing the front door.

Sunshine sighs. _He is so weird.._

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Anna’s been... well, a little more _vocal_ lately. Right now being one of those times. Sunshine turns the camera on and squints. _Maybe it wasn’t her.._ She blinks slowly and listens for bangs or footsteps, but can’t hear any. A sudden soft voice from upstairs catches her attention.

Sunshine rises to her feet, biting the inside of her cheek. “Is that you, Anna?”

She turns the screen around and follows the voice, looking around the living room. No one’s inside. A voice from behind her causes Sunshine to wheel around, but no one is there.. either..

“Anna?” she calls again, voice more rough. She knows Anna isn’t violent, but talking to a dead little girl is still kind of creepy.

She avoids the bathroom— yeah, okay, Sunshine can’t say she’ll ever get over that one— and gasps when there’s a bang on the wall from upstairs. Sunshine paces into the kitchen, coaxing herself into not being a complete pussy, and makes her way up the stairs.

It’s darker up here, but the natural light filtering in through the windows eases the tension, just a bit. Sunshine walks down the short hall, jumping when the door slams at the base of the stairs. Great. “Anna..?”

When she turns, Anna is standing at the end of the hallway. She’s wearing black clothes, a white bag splayed over her head. Sunshine blinks, and she’s gone. “Anna?” she tries again.

The door clicks open below again, and when Sunshine whirls around, Anna is walking through the kitchen and out of sight. Sunshine runs down the stairs, entering the living room. “Anna? Anna, are you here?”

Oh. Um. What is _that_? Sunshine walks up to the black table wedged between the couches, glancing at the white paper on top. A child’s wet handprint is on top. What. The. Hell.

She grips the paper and turns it over, eyes widening at the familiar picture of the bagged father and daughter. The one that had been _burned_ all those months ago by the demon. Well. There it is. She backs away, breath hitching, and wonders what the hell Anna is trying to tell her.  
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So. Nolan left a long, windy, and... odd voicemail. She’s not really sure what to think. Sunshine plays it for the camera.

“Sunshine. Hello.” It’s Nolan, and he sounds short-breathed and slightly panicked. “Sunshine, so glad I missed you—” She rolls her eyes, “—Um, not, not in the real sense, but just because I now have time to recollect and, uh, figure out what my recollections are and where they’re coming from, and— which is, which is good—”

“Which is good,” Sunshine mutters, grunting.

“But, you know, I’m really— I’m missing— I’m missing that, that _spark_ of interaction—”

She snorts.

“—which is _important_ for—” Something unintelligible, “—things that I need to say, that I’m not sure if I have the words or weight or, uh, uh— Listen, I, I would recommend that you stay put, stay _awake_ for a while, don’t go, don’t go anywhere where there might be more doors that you think you might be able to, uh, to open—”

Okay. Yeah, this is getting weird. She can’t help but raise her brows in response.

“I— I think I can help—” A pause. “I really think I can help, and uh, if this reaches you, um...” He trails off, and Sunshine can hear a dog barking in the background. “Yeah. All right. I’ll talk to you later. Uh.”

Then the voicemail cuts off.

“Yeah, that was a one minute and twenty four second voicemail right there. That was _ridiculous_.” Sunshine shakes her head. “But anyways.. it was kind of creepy, right? He talks about doors that I couldn’t open and... being safe and.. staying awake or something, I— I think I heard that in there. I don’t know.”

She honestly just doesn’t know what to think. This is weird behavior, even for Nolan, and that’s saying a _lot_.

Looks like this is another mystery she’ll have to solve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy hell. 2 updates in one day?? what is this?!


	43. Chapter 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nolan talks about his past, and someone familiar shows up.

Nolan’s at the house, _finally_. He’s supposed to talk about the interesting things he found out about. Of course, he looks— not necessarily _bad_ , but definitely not great. 

They’re sitting at the dining table, Kat’s holding the camera, and Nolan... well. His hair is ruffled and his eyes are darker than usual. He hasn’t shown an ounce of humor or sarcasm quite yet, and to say the least, Sunshine is _worried_. He can hardly look at the camera. 

“What was up with that voicemail, Nolan?” Kat asks suspiciously.

“Oh, well, I was uh—” He clenches his fingers together and his voice is softer and rougher than usual. Sunshine doesn’t like this. He shrugs his shoulders back and hesitates. “Admittedly, I was a little over-emotional.”

Sunshine nods.

“A _little_?” her mother remarks.

“Um, yeah, um, but— that’s okay, y’know? People, people make mistakes, hormones, angst, uh.” He clears his throat.

“You blame that on hormones, really?” Sunshine raises a dubious brow at Nolan.

“Uh, listen, I’m not— I’m not trying to cause any ruckus or anything, I just, uh— I just, I just don’t know exactly what’s going on... right now.” He frowns and appears to be very serious. “You know?”

“No,” Kat huffs. “Fill us in. What are you talking about?”

“Explain yourself,” Sunshine says.

“It’s, it’s not— it’s more difficult to _process_ uh, with tables and chairs and... candles.” He glances at the candles and rocks sitting in a long white plate. He picks up one of the rocks. “ _Stones_ , uh—”

Sunshine rolls her eyes.

“—the point of what I’m getting at is that I, uh..”

She nods impatiently.

“Am hearing— things.”

Sunshine narrows her eyes. “Okay.”

“Sometimes,” Nolan goes on, “and, it’s not that—” He grits his teeth, like he’s trying to say something but doesn’t want to tell them, “—and I want to, to make sense of them.”

“Like you’re— like, explain, you’re hearing... voices..?” Kat questions.

“Yeah. I want to understand what they’re saying. And I— I can almost—” He tilts his head, “get it, I just wanted to make sure when I left the message that you were okay, because, sometimes... they talk about— you.”

Sunshine raises her brows. “The voices in your head talk about me.”

He bites the inside of his cheek and looks at her. “Yeah.”

She looks confused. “Okay..”

“I just— wanted to make sure that you were okay, and that you would remain okay, and I just wanted to— I just want to help.” He looks down.

Kat sighs. “Okay, well I know one thing that’ll help.” She eyes Sunshine. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”

She puffs out a breath. This whole thing _is_ coming full circle, just like Uncle Tommy said. “Possession test?”

“ _Oh_ yeah.”

Nolan glares at the camera then it drops to confusion, like he doesn’t exactly understand what they’re insinuating. “Wait, what?”

“Do you have it still?” Kat asks.

“Yeah,” she grunts.

“What’s, uh— what’s a _possession_ test..?”

“Get excited,” Sunshine says sarcastically, “it’s real fun.”

“All you have to do, Nolan, is write stuff down— write down what Sunshine says, okay? It’s really easy.”

Nolan picks up the pen and creases the paper. “It’s like a— spelling—?”

“It’s not spelling, no.”

“No.” Sunshine snorts. “Just... just a couple stuff, promise, it’s really easy.” A pause. “You ready?”

Nolan nods seriously. “Uh, yeah. Just, um— what do I— okay, go, sorry.”

“First line,” Sunshine begins, “ _To this world’s end_.”

Nolan takes a lot of effort into the paper, muttering the words as he writes them down with ease. He doesn’t _seem_ possessed, but the whole voices thing is weird, and so are the random, cryptic things he’s saying. Sunshine’s been around a possessed person to know that it’s better safe than sorry.

He looks up at her.

Sunshine straightens as she continues to read from her phone. “Okay, next line— _I am me, and me alone_.”

Kat tries to eye his handwriting with the camera, but he covers up the words. “You’re not gonna let me see, are you?” she grunts.

“What— what is the criteria for passing this test, exactly?” Nolan raises a brow.

“ _Next line_ ,” Sunshine says sharply, “ _With faith_ —” She inclines her head toward the paper when he hesitates.

“Just write it down, Nolan,” Kat mutters.

He does so, but his hand begins to shake with each stroke of the pen.

“And, last line— _I cast out all who possess me_.”

Nolan begins writing the line, but his hand strains as he does so. He gasps softly and pushes his chin into his shoulder, squeezing his eyes shut, but turns back and vigorously continues.

And... he finishes.

Sunshine swipes the paper from him and eyes it suspiciously. “Other than it’s written very neatly, um, yeah. You passed.”

Kat nods. “Okay, you passed, no big deal.”

Nolan sighs and pushes himself back into the chair, eyes still dark.

 _Mom Mode_ again. “Hey, what’s goin’ on? You’re obviously freaked out about something more than just... _voices_.”

He bites his lip and his gaze flickers from Kat to Sunshine, almost in a nervous manner. He did pass the test, but he’s clearly not completely here. 

He continues to glance between them and eventually leans back, crossing his arms. “All right.” Nolan looks down. “I haven’t— been— completely honest with you guys.”

Sunshine frowns.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” 

Silence.

“Okay...” Kat and Sunshine say together.

Nolan blinks slowly and hesitates.

“Is it a... long story?” Sunshine mumbles.

“No,” he says softly, voice growing slightly louder as he leans his elbows on the table. “Yeah, so, this isn’t the first time— uh— the voices have been a thing... for me...” He frowns. “I mean I— I didn’t want to— I don’t like telling people.” His voice breaks. “Because you tell someone that you hear voices, and they think you’re crazy.”

Kat sighs. “Yeah...”

Sunshine just nods, trying to understand what he’s getting at.

“Crazy’s dismissive,” he continues. “I don’t want that. But—” He clears his throat, “But you guys are my friends, and I think you should know. Um, when I was— for as long as I can remember, I’ve... heard things. And saw things.”

Sunshine exchanges a glance with her mother.

“That people didn’t necessarily see or understand, um, and words were thrown around, like— schizophrenia, uh, hyperactive attention— delusions— crazy.” His voice goes quiet. This seems to really bother him. “But— I’m okay. And I could see things that I’m pretty sure hadn’t happened.”

Sunshine’s heart spikes. Wait, what now?

“And it was rough for a long time, and my parents... I got sick, and I, uh, I went to the hospital and I was treated with _things_ I don’t remember the names of, and—” He clenches his jaw. “I kept getting sicker, and it hurt, really bad. And— I— went to sleep for a while.”

Kat stumbles over her words. “What, like— like a coma?”

Nolan doesn’t look at either of them. “Yeah.”

“Wow... okay..”

He finally looks up and searches their faces for disappointment, but finds none. It relaxes his tension just slightly, but it’s definitely still there.

“Okay..” Kat sighs, tone worried. “Nolan, when did all this happen?”

“It was like... a decade ago, I think. I would’ve been... 19, at the time.”

“What?” Kat mutters.

“But I’m fine,” he tries to shrug off, “and I think that there’s a reason for this, and I just— gotta _focus_.”

“Y— you would’ve been _what_?” Sunshine finally asks, eyes narrowed. Sorry, did she hear that correctly?

“Like, how old?” Kat adds.

Nolan shushes them and clenches his fists.

“Nolan,” Sunshine tries.

“Yeah,” he responds, trying to smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. 

“How old would you have been?”

“I was about 19.” He shifts in the chair and rises to his feet. “I’ve...”

“Okay, so like, you _just_ were sick?” Kat continues.

Sunshine nods, wondering why he’s standing up. “You just got sick? Like..?”

“Huh?” he asks as he rounds the table, breathing heavily and shaking. He leans on the kitchen counter. “No, uh... what?”

“How long ago did you get sick?” Sunshine presses.

Nolan looks out of the window, breath hitching. He turns back to them. “I, I gotta—” He points with his thumb toward the front door. “I gotta run. I gotta run, I’ll be— I’ll be back, uh...”

“Where are you going?” Kat stands as well, clearly worried for him. Something isn’t right here. Nolan’s acting _very_ strange.

“Nolan?” Sunshine asks, concerned.

“I’m gonna— see you guys— later, okay?” He swiftly turns and anxiously leaves, slamming the door behind him.

“Okay...” Kat mutters. She looks at Sunshine incredulously. “Okay, what was _that_?”

“I don’t know,” she sighs, stressed.

“Okay, didn’t he just say he was 19 _ten years ago_?”

Sunshine nods slowly.

Great.

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Two days later, Sunshine’s _finally_ gotten a hold of Nolan. A pain in her ass, really. They talked for a little while about _shoes_ , but aside from that, he said he would be bringing over a paranormal expert on Sunday.

Yeah, hopefully _that_ goes better than last time. Jeez. That had been... awful. What a joke. It had to have been a joke, right? Seriously...

But, y’know. Shoes. Nolan. Expert dude. Pretty sure that’s everything, so— slides covered. Cool. Awesome.  
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It’s 6:30 on a Sunday and Nolan said he was going to be here with the— paranormal expert dude— but of course he _isn’t_. Nolan is late. Wow. What a shocker. She’s still hoping it goes better than last time.

“What did he say he knew about?” Kat asks.

“He said he was, like, an expert, super knowledgeable in all the Luiseach and... and the _war_ , and.. paranormally-ness—”

The front door flies open and startles both women. Sunshine snaps her head to the side to see Nolan flying through, slamming the door shut. He stands rigid, anxiously staring at both of them, like he just ran over a person and needs a place to crash for the night.

“Oh. He just. Let himself in,” Kat groans.

“Hey, Nolan...” Sunshine mutters optimistically.

He breathes heavily, stumbling back. His voice is soft and quiet, but the terror is clear. “Is he here?”

“You said you were bringing him!” Sunshine says.

“Why isn’t he here yet?” he asks himself, pacing back and forth.

Kat is surprised. “Wait, he didn’t come with you?”

Nolan walks past Sunshine and into the living room, arms raised to cover his eyes with his hands stressfully. He whimpers and wipes his palms down his face. “Listen,” he says, voice breaking, “to me, guys— I— I _know_ now.”

He drops his hands and looks at them. “I _know_ n—” He winces and scrunches his face, like he’s in pain or something terrible is happening. He clenches his hands tightly. “Stop!” he yells to no one in particular.

“Woah, calm down, what—?” Kat touches his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

He cries out.

“ _Nolan_?” she presses.

He breathes out. “I— I—” A knock on the door catches everyone’s attention. “—saying to me...”

He trails off and Kat moves to get the door.

“No, don’t—”

“What, Nolan, _Nolan_ ,” Sunshine tries, but he’s not listening to her.

“Shh, shh, Kat.” Nolan leans against the door and faces her mother, serious. “Give me one minute,” he pleads.

Kat shakes her head. “What, you— he’s here, what?”

“It’s _him_ ,” he says slowly, appearing to be absolutely petrified.

“What’s him?” Kat demands.

A man tries to peer through the front door window.

Nolan sobs and clutches his face desperately. 

“Okay, just—” Kat is cut off.

“No, no, if you—” He presses his body next to the wall, breathing heavily.

“Let’s just hear what he has to say, okay?”

“Nolan!” Sunshine growls. What the hell is wrong with him?

“He’s here, let’s see what he has to say, okay?” Kat repeats, attempting to calm him down.

“ _Nolan_!”

“I just— I need—” He lowers his hands and his gaze widens. “I need you to _trust_ me, one time, _please_...!”

“I trust you,” Kat soothes, “I trust you all the time, Nolan, go sit, okay? Just sit down, okay? It’s all right!” 

“Nolan, just _sit_.” Sunshine glares at him. He backs away, breathing growing heavier and heavier.

“Hi, I’m sorry about that,” her mother says as she opens the door. “Hi, I’m Kat.”

“Hi, Kat,” the man says professionally, shaking her hand. He’s wearing a black shirt with a dark gray overcoat, short black hair sweeping over his head.

“Nice to meet you, come on in.” Kat motions him inside and steps back.

“Nice to meet you.” He looks at Sunshine and smiles.

_Oh, HELL no!_

“What are you doing here?” Sunshine asks in a low and exhausted voice, brows furrowing.

“Sunshine,” LeMaster laughs.

“Wait, you guys know each other?” Kat asks.

“I’m glad to see you’re still alive,” he breathes.

“What, _still alive_?”

Sunshine scoffs.

“I— I know, I’m sorry, um...” LeMaster holds his hands together and looks at Sunshine. “I wanted to let you know, uh, I’ve been apologizing—”

Nolan is muttering furiously and painfully somewhere in the living room.

“—to everyone I’ve, I’ve served before. I realized there was a lot of— errors— in my ways, and I’ve reformed, I’ve shaved my beard, uh, removed my tattoo, and fired my guru, and I’m sorry for being so condescending the last time we interacted, I’m, I’m really just here to help.” He nods. “Hello, Kat.”

“Okay...” her mother nods slowly. “All right. Okay?”

Sunshine sighs. “Sure,” she snaps.

“May I?” LeMaster asks.

“Yeah,” she says coldly.

“Thank you, Sunshine.” He steps into the home and they all turn to see Nolan writhing on the ground, leaned up against a white beam in the living room. He laughs dangerously when he sees LeMaster.

“ _Nolan_ ,” Sunshine says disapprovingly.

He leans his head down and Kat crouches in front of him, “Hey, Nolan, you have to calm down. Okay? He’s here now, he can help—”

Nolan wipes his tears. “I’m trying _so_ hard to— Kat— Kat—”

Kat turns away and looks at LeMaster. “Can you do anything when he’s like this?”

LeMaster sighs. “Well, I— I don’t mean to be rude, I, I understand that he’s having an emotional encounter, but it is affecting the energy—” He widens his arms, “—of the space, and it’s interfering with my perception.”

“ _Nolan_ ,” Sunshine harshly snaps. He’s crying like a little girl. He’s not even hurt! “Stop! Okay? Can you just _chill_?”

Nolan breathes, looking forward.

“Get up.”

“Th— th— thank you, Sunshine,” he mutters, pushing himself up using his palms, back sliding against the wooden beam.

“Sit, okay?”

“I’m sorry,” Nolan murmurs.

“Okay, so..” Kat turns to LeMaster, who nods. “Where do you wanna start, do you..?”

“Well, let’s just start with, uh, this space.” He places a hand on the lamp, thinking. “It’s a normal temperature.” He then touches the desk and spreads his hand over the items on top. “These are healthy candles.” 

He turns and moves his hands in circles. “This room is clean.” LeMaster moves into the kitchen. Nolan is standing behind Sunshine like a little girl.

“Do you want— actually, Sunshine’s room is upstairs, do you wanna... see that?”

“Absolutely, I do,” LeMaster agrees, nearing the base of the stairs.

Sunshine whips around when he comes even closer. “Nolan, _what_? Ow!”

“Sunshine,” he says, looking at her.

“ _What_?”

“Sunshine—” His voice lowers. “Sunshine, do you remember when we first met?” He has a small smile, but it’s pained and terrified.

“Okay, yeah,” she says, bored.

“I was— I was just the Creepy Guy?” He smiles. “Remember that?”

“Yeah.” Sunshine huffs out a laugh. “You kinda are, right now, being the creepy guy.”

His brows push together, eyes wide. “I said I was here to help you.”

“Yeah, I— remember, I was there—” He clutches her arm like she’s his only lifeline. “You’re hurting my arm,” she mumbles, annoyed.

Nolan lets go and straightens up. 

“What?”

“I’m gonna keep you safe, Sunshine,” he vows, nodding to himself.

“Okay..?”

He unzips his black leather jacket and fishes around the inside pockets, narrowing his eyes.

“ _Nolan_.” She doesn’t like LeMaster, but going upstairs with them is probably a better idea than hanging around down here. “What are you..?”

He pulls out a silver gun.

“ _Nolan_!” she whisper-yells. “Nolan, what the _hell_ — Put it away.” He doesn’t make a move to, holding it in his left hand. “ _Nolan_!”

“Let me show you down here,” Kat says from the stairs.

Nolan shifts in his place, looking into the kitchen, avoiding her eyes.

“ _Nolan_!” she tries again. Why isn’t he listening to her? He’s crazy!

When they reach the bottom floor, Nolan stuffs the gun in his jacket.

“Nolan, just— stop! Just put it away, Nolan!”

He leans against the wall, tightly hugging his arms around his body.

“ _Nolan_.”

He looks at her and smirks, winking.

“Nolan, _seriously_.”

Kat and LeMaster reach the living room and she eyes her daughter and Nolan. “You okay?”

LeMaster swipes his hand over the arch between the kitchen and the living room.

“Mom—” She side-eyes Nolan. “Come over here, Mom.”

“What’s wrong?” She walks up to her.

“I’m just... not comfortable..”

LeMaster tries to follow them but Nolan pushes himself off the wall, standing in front of him. He pulls out the gun and points it at LeMaster’s head.

“Nolan!”

“What are you doing?!” Kat exclaims.

LeMaster spreads his arms out, eyes widening. 

“I— _know_ — who you are now!” Nolan laughs darkly, hand shaking with the gun. 

“Nolan, put the gun away!” Kat snarls, then whispers to Sunshine, “is that a real gun?”

“I don’t know...” Sunshine murmurs, standing behind Nolan.

“I— I am LeMaster—” he tries.

“You’ve been scarin’ me for a long time, and I’m not scared of you anymore, you understand?” His voice raises and breaks.

“Uh, I— I don’t understand,” LeMaster stammers.

“Nolan!” Kat growls.

“It’s you,” Nolan snaps, glaring at LeMaster. “It’s _you_!”

“ _Nolan_!”

Nolan breathes in. “You’re the one who’s been causing all of this— I don’t know if it’s _all_ you, but you’re there!”

“ _Nolan_!” Sunshine says louder.

“ _What_?” he says, facing her.

“Can you stop?” she whispers. LeMaster’s hands are on his head — he’s not dangerous! “What are you doing?”

“Look at him,” Nolan sneers, “he’s not even in the mirror.”

“I— I— I think that—” LeMaster stammers.

“What?” Kat gapes.

“He’s not even in the mirror...” Sunshine turns to the one hanging above the couch, eyes wide. “Nolan.” Her throat goes dry. “Neither are you.”

Kat begins to tremble. “What?” 

“Just—” Sunshine turns back to Nolan, who’s staring at them, looking confused and anxious. 

He whips to LeMaster. “What are you doing?!” Nolan demands.

“I—”

“ _Stop it_! Stop it!” Nolan screams, moving forward slowly.

“Nolan,” Kat says, trying to soothe him in any way possible.

What. The. Hell. Is. Happening?

LeMaster bows his head. “Violence is not the answer, uh, let us— let us take a moment—”

“Shut up,” Nolan seethes, voice low and cold. It grows louder as he nears closer. “Shut up!”

“No! Nolan! Look!” Sunshine points to the mirror.

“Put it back!” Nolan continues to yell, “put it back, please!” He nears the two women again.

“You don’t want this on your karma,” LeMaster stutters. “I assure you.”

“Put it back.”

“Put what back?”

“Put it _back_!” Nolan presses his finger closer to the trigger. Sunshine’s wondering how she hasn’t passed out yet. 

“I— I will, just tell me— tell me what you want me to do.”

“Nolan,” Kat says softly.

“Nolan!” Sunshine growls.

“Put the gun down.” Kat shakes her head. “Why isn’t he listening to you?”

Nolan begins to cry. “I’m a good guy.”

LeMaster nods hopefully. “You— you’re a great guy—” 

“I want to help,” he sobs.

“Nolan! Just stop,” Sunshine begs, growing aggravated. “ _Nolan_!”

“I’ll do anything,” LeMaster pleads.

“Get—” Nolan hangs his head, wiping tears away with his free hand.

“Nolan, we’re _fine_ ,” Kat stresses.

“ _You’re_ the bad guy,” Nolan spits through his teeth, glaring at LeMaster.

“No one’s the bad guy.” LeMaster’s voice shakes. “We’re all good guys here.”

“I’m good.”

“Nolan. Nolan, listen to me. You don’t want to do this.”

“I’m not scared of you anymore,” he seethes.

“There’s nothing to be scared of. We’re just gonna set the gun down—” LeMaster continues.

“Nolan,” she says. He turns to look at Sunshine and smiles a little, nodding. He whimpers and turns his head back to LeMaster. “Nolan—”

He fires. Sunshine, Kat, and LeMaster scream, the bang filling their ears and knocking around their heads. Sunshine staggers but Kat manages to hold on to her. Everything is muffled for a moment, the world bright lights around her, until it all comes racing back.

Nolan’s fired the gun at least five times. They’re both screaming at him to stop but he _doesn’t_. LeMaster holds on to his chest and slides down to the ground, groaning painfully. He slumps face-down on the kitchen floor.

Kat begins to sob. Sunshine is too shocked and horrified to say anything.

Nolan drops the gun and looks around. “Right,” he mutters. “Right.” He sits down and seems to be— to be calm, calmer than someone who just _killed_ another person should be.

“Nolan,” Sunshine whispers. “What did you do?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Honey, we need to call the cops,” Kat cries.

“I don’t— Mom, I don’t know!”

“You— no— we have to call the police, where is your phone?”

“I don’t know!” Sunshine exclaims.

Kat screws her eyes shut and points toward the kitchen. “I think it’s in there. You need to go get the phone!”

Sunshine is staring past her, wide-eyed. “Mom.”

Kat turns her head to follow her daughter’s gaze, and she stops crying. LeMaster is standing, seemingly taller and angrier than before, eyes dark.

LeMaster laughs menacingly, taking slow steps forward. “ **We do not fear you, little girl** ,” he booms in a demonic voice. It fills the entire house. “ **Your powers are nothing compared to ours. There is no escape. We will strike down on you with all vengeance of the seventh world**!” His hands raise to his sides. He’s standing too close to them, but what can they _do_?

“ **And burn your soul with all the fire of hell**!” he yells. LeMaster quickly stomps towards them and Sunshine screams, ducking away from him.

Nothing touches her.

She turns and the front door is swinging open. LeMaster is gone.

“Nolan?” she whispers, turning to where he was sitting on the couch. He isn’t there, either.

What the _hell_ just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy wowza this chapter was so long and took about 2-3 hours as well but it was so freaking worth it and fun anyway yeah i love nolan and lemaster is vv scawy ;w;


	44. Chapter 44

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The more they dig into Nolan’s story, the weirder it gets. What the hell is going on?

Sunshine is... confused. She’s sitting on her trampoline, dark gray clouds rolling over her head. The wind swaying branches back and forth nearby drenches her in an icy calmness. She isn’t sure how to feel, not after... well, y’know. _That_.

So. Nolan. LeMaster, or, maybe LeMaster. She doesn’t even know anymore. It’s all just really weird. 

First of all, Nolan had been struggling with something the days prior — he’d hesitated explaining everything about his past, and Sunshine is determined to figure it out. On top of that, it seemed like Nolan _knew_ LeMaster. Seriously? What’s that all about?

Shit. Don’t even get her started on the whole gun thing.

She supposes she’s less stressed because— well, no one was really _hurt_. Sure, Nolan had put a few bullets in demon(?) LeMaster, but then he’d literally _jumped_ from his place on the floor and acted insane. Shouting things at her, trying to destroy her...

Ugh. Maybe Nolan’s been right about all of this. Sunshine’s starting to believe she’s a Luiseach. Starting to believe that there’s actually a— don’t laugh— paranormal war going on. That has to be it. Seriously.

And on top of that, both LeMaster and Nolan had just— poof! Disappeared! Wonderful. Amazing. Now Sunshine’s left with no answers and absolutely no one to help her. Her mother’s still shaken up about the whole thing, granted, but Nolan’s expertise in the field _does_ help. Now... well. She feels just as alone as she did when Kat was possessed.

Maybe it didn’t happen. That would be, well, nice. A drug trip. Maybe Nolan drugged the camera, too. That would be better than believing all of this shit.

Even worse, she hasn’t been able to get a hold of Nolan since. It’s... it’s weird, she doesn’t like it, and she needs some fucking answers.

There’s only one lead she has to follow. Better now than never, right...?  
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Sunshine arrives at the warehouse. She’s bored, tired of thinking, and honestly needs something to give her a little action in her life. It looks the same, dull and lifeless, but it seems like people are actually working here.

Still. There’s nothing going on, and no clue of any stray cars Sunshine might need to chase. 

Yeah. Bad clue. This place sucks.  
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Uncle Tommy’s here.

So, apparently, he’s— upset about something? She’s not quite sure, but sits down on the couch anyway, facing Kat and her not-uncle.

“What are you doing?” Kat groans.

“Nothing,” Sunshine says.

“Uh. Camera in your hand? Having a conversation? Family?” She waves her hand between she and Uncle Tommy.

Speaking of. “Grown up... time?” he tries.

Kat drops her arms and glares at him. “Grown up time? It— it involves Sunshine, she has to be a part of this.”

“Okay.” He sighs and looks at Sunshine, frowning. “It’s just— I don’t know a lot about this stuff, okay?”

“Neither do we!” Kat insists.

“Well, you’re the ones that keep inviting it into your house!”

“We did _no_ inviting—”

He leans forward. “Like, you busted out the _Ouija Board_ back—”

“We never even _did_ the Ouija Board and stuff happened.” Kat nods, staring at him. “It is all coming to her.” She points at Sunshine. “It— it’s all her.”

Uncle Tommy scoffs. “Coming to her, like the _boyfriend_?” He shoots an accusatory glance toward Sunshine.

“He’s _not_ my boyfriend,” she groans, disgusted at the mere idea of that.

“Yes! Exactly like that,” Kat nods. “It _shows_ up on our door, we didn’t _invite_ —”

“And showing up with a _gun_?!” he exclaims, dumbfounded. “And _shooting_ some guy?”

Kat’s voice grows quieter. “We did not know he was gonna bring a gun, that was— it was just supposed to be the paranormal expert, he was supposed to stop by—” She waves her hands, “we had no idea it was going to be _LeMaster_ — this is not— we’re not asking for this and you know it!”

“After everything that you’ve gone through already, why are you not putting a _stop_ to this?” he asks.

“How would you like me to stop it?” her mother counters.

“I don’t—” His hands fall. 

“Tommy, Seriously.”

“I don’t know!”

“Tell me. Tell me how you think we can stop this. I’d _love_ to hear your suggestion.”

He turns his head to look outside, the drizzle of rain pattering against the sliding glass doors.

“Maybe...” Uncle Tommy slumps, blinking slowly. “I don’t know, nothing seems to happen when I’m here, maybe I just need to hang out a lot more.” He sassily inclines his head.

“Oh, _you’re_ — mmm.” Kat looks at the camera. “Tommy’s gonna protect us.”

“I’m gonna protect you,” he nods.

Sunshine raises a dubious brow and snorts. “Well, Tommy will be here to protect us.”  
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Sunshine has this weird feeling in her belly. It’s a deep, gut-twisting intuition, like she _knows_ today is the day for something weird or insane to happen. Great. Another day in the life of Sunshine Girl...

And, wow. As she’s in the middle of spewing these thoughts to her camera, there’s a heavy knock on the door.

She furrows her brows and stands slowly. “It is,” she mutters, walking toward the door and peering through the small glass window. Her breath hitches when she sees a familiar, tall teen wearing a black leather jacket. “No _freaking_ way.”

Sunshine opens the door. “Nolan,” she calls. His head is bent down, like he’s looking at his shoes, and he mutters something as he stumbles inside. She grits her teeth. God, what _now_? “Come in,” she mumbles sarcastically, shutting the front door.

He walks past her and avoids the camera, which is weird, because Nolan always loves being the center of attention. “Nolan— Nolan!” He slowly makes his way into the kitchen, back to her. “I’ve been worried about you.” Her tone is slightly relieved.

“Nolan—” Sunshine’s breath hitches when he turns to look at her. Nolan’s eyes are pure black. He winks and disappears behind the wall. “Nolan!” She follows him into the kitchen and to the base of the stairs, staggering when he isn’t there. What the hell...?

There’s another heavy knock on the door and her heart leaps into her throat. “What....? What _now_?” She makes her way to the front door and stops. “ _Nolan_?”

There he is, standing there again with his head bent. “Nolan,” she says, growing slightly annoyed. What’s happening? “What is going on?”

“I’m so tired,” he mutters as he walks past her again.

“What are you—” She pauses when she sees her mother.

“What are you doing here?” Kat asks, tone less than friendly.

Nolan glances at Kat and veers into the kitchen, the same way he had earlier.

“What is going on?” Sunshine asks again, growing slightly nervous. This isn’t normal. 

“ _Nolan_ ,” Kat stresses. “Nolan.” Her breath hitches when he turns to the both of them, pitch black filling up his eyes. He winks again and disappears behind the wall.

“Nolan...” Sunshine desperately follows him, but when she gets to the stairs.... he isn’t _there_. “He’s gone again.”

“What do you mean _again_?” Kat asks.

Sunshine sighs. “He’s already done this once.”

“Done _what_?”

“Go out and... come back, and...” She groans. “He just— he knocked, and then he did it again.”

Kat presses her brows together. “Well— how is he, how is he doing that?”

“I don’t know!”

She places a hand on her forehead. “I don’t understand..”

 _Another_ heavy knock on the door.

Kat looks at her daughter, eyes wide. “Is that him?”

“He’s back,” she nods. Sunshine rushes to the door and swings it open, looking up at him. “Nolan. Can you talk to me this time? Can you—”

“I’m so tired,” he mutters again, walking past both women.

“Nolan!” she attempts.

He turns to them, black eyes and all, winks, and disappears behind the wall again. 

“What, _what_?” Kat stammers.

“I don’t know!”

“Go try to talk to him!” Her mother points toward the kitchen.

Sunshine sighs and follows where Black-Eyed Nolan presumably went for the third time, and, oh. Go figure. _He isn’t there._

“Where is he _going_?” Kat peers up the stairs, shaking.

“I don’t know...” Sunshine mumbles.

They both look at the door, but Nolan isn’t standing there.

“How many times did he do it?” Kat asks.

“That’s three.” Sunshine nears the front door. “Nolan..?” He’s not there.

“And he never talked to you?” her mother presses.

“Not really.” She looks through the window and over the porch, but... it’s empty. “He’s not there.”

Well. That wasn’t weird or anything.  
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She’s so confused about what’s going on with Nolan. She read about this thing called a Residual Haunting, where a ghost does a thing over and over and over again— they just repeat themselves. 

Is Nolan... a ghost...?

Has he been a ghost this whole time?

God. She doesn’t know.

Luckily, she receives a letter in the mail the next day.

Sunshine sits with her mother on the couch and opens the paper, raising a brow. “It’s kind of an odd one,” she grunts, turning the camera over to face the words. “Not like all the fan ones...”

Sunshine clears her throat, beginning to read.

‘Dear Ms. Sunshine.

I have recently—’

Kat gasps. “Dear Ms. Sunshine.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yep.”

‘I have recently discovered your videos on YouTube and I wanted to let you know that I, too, have a fascination with Black-Eyed Kids, or Black-Eyed People. I have done a ton—

“A lot, sorry.”

‘A ton of research on the subject ever since a good friend of mine _disappeared_ after having an encounter with one of these creatures. I think you should come to Portland, Oregon and let me explain to you what it is that we’re dealing with here. All the best,

Tom Waters.’

“Huh,” Kat tuts. “Portland’s close.”

Sunshine raises her brows. “Ish.”

“Why does he think, though, that you...”

“Are the one to talk.. to..?” Sunshine trails off.

Kat frowns. “You haven’t done that much about Black-Eyed Kids, you just said you really liked the..”

“The legend.”

“The legend,” Kat confirms, “or, whatever.”

“I don’t know.” Sunshine bites her nail, contemplating.

“What do you think you’re gonna do?”

She pauses. “Maybe I’ll write it back, see what he has to say.”

Kat nods. “It’s a start.”

Sunshine looks at the camera. “Let’s— let’s find out what’s goin’ on with Tom Waters, you guys. Do that first.”

“He called you Ms. Sunshine.”

“I’m gonna call him Mr. Tom Waters, then.”

Kat snorts. “Good plan.”  
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Uh. Okay, so, after all of her little YouTube followers’ protests, Sunshine and Kat are back at Nolan’s grandma’s house. Haha... great... memories here..

“I’m terrified,” Kat mumbles. 

“Here we go,” Sunshine quips.

They exit the car and make their way over the lawn, night sky blanketing the world in darkness.

“I kinda wish we’d been here during the day,” Kat muses.

“A little earlier?”

Kat smiles at the lights dotting the pathway. “Look how inviting her house is now.”

“It is a little cuter,” Sunshine nods.

Her mother groans. “I really hate this, a lot.”

“Oh my gosh, stop complaining.”

“Oh, suddenly you’re all brave?”

“No,” Sunshine insists as they step on the porch.

“Wait, are you gonna introduce us, or..?”

Sunshine shoots a glare. “No, you are.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She leans forward and knocks on the familiar glass door, looking inside the house. It looks the exact same, except now there are actual _lights_ on.

An older woman with a gray jacket, white shirt, and blue jeans walks to the door. She opens the door and curiously peers back at them with a rounded face and soft eyes, glasses perched on top. Her hair is light brown and short, not reaching past her ears. “Hello?” she asks politely. “Can I help you?”

Kat doesn’t say anything, so it looks like Sunshine’ll have to be the one doing the introducing. “Uh, hi,” she stammers, thinking of what she should say. Does his grandma even know Nolan’s missing? “Um, I’m Sunshine, and this is... my mom... Kat..” She motions awkwardly toward Mom.

Nolan’s grandma takes her glasses off and tilts her head. “Hello.”

“Yeah, uh—” Sunshine bites her lip. “Have you seen Nolan? Any... where..?”

Grandma appears to be confused. “Nolan?” she says softly. “I don’t— I don’t know anyone named Nolan.”

“What,” Sunshine blurts. Um. Excuse me? Huh? Que? “He’s your... grandson..?”

The woman raises her brows. “I don’t have any grandsons. I think you’re... mistaken, you must have the wrong house, perhaps you wanted to—” She motions to the right. “Talk to the lady next door.”

Kat finally says something. “Have you— have you been in Cabo recently?”

Now grandma is even _more_ confused. “Mexico?”

“Never mind,” Kat mutters, then louder— “I’m sorry, thank you. Sorry.”

“Thank you,” Sunshine nods, turning away with her mother, “for your time.”

“Sorry, girls,” grandma calls, “I wish I could help.”

“Oh, it’s all right, thank you,” Kat says. “Sorry.” When they’re farther away from the house and near the car, Kat rounds on her daughter. “What the hell just happened?”

Sunshine is literally freaking out. She’s not delusional, and neither is her mother, because that was _literally_ the house they’d spent half the night in. Holy mother of Jesus. Had they snuck into some grandma’s house with ghost Nolan? 

“Nolan kept saying he lived there,” Sunshine splutters, laughing anxiously and sort of stupefied, “we ate that lady’s _Cheeto’s_.”

“That is the right house,” Kat whisper-yells. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know.”

Fucking hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i laughed so hard when sunshine said, “we ate that lady’s cheeto’s,” i’m still giggling just writing about it i. wow this was a fun chapter to write


	45. Chapter 45

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Tommy sticks around and experiences a ghost attack. Sunshine uncovers more clues on Nolan’s whereabouts.

It’s the day after the whole Nolan’s-grandma-isn’t-actually-his-grandma fiasco and Sunshine’s received another letter in the mail. Tom Waters still wants her to come visit him in Portland about the Black-Eyed Kids, so Uncle Tommy and Kat are going to figure out exactly what to do.

Sunshine sits across from them, smiling as she holds her camera. Uncle Tommy glances at her, paper in hand, and exchanges a glance with Kat.

“I just think he wants her to come visit,” her mother huffs. “I think that’s what’s goin’ on, Tom.”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “How about you just read the..?”

Uncle Tommy blinks. “You want me to read it?”

“Yeah.”

‘Dear Ms. Sunshine,

In light of your most recent video I implore you to follow the advice of my original letter and come to Portland, Oregon and visit me. Get the answers you seek on this subject. Not only am I a wealth of information on the subject, but I have personal experience with Black-Eyed People.’

Kat raises a brow and glances at her daughter.

‘I’m sure it did not go unnoticed in your most recent encounter with the spirit of Nolan that he had black eyes, not unlike the accounts of the Black-Eyed Kids. There’s a reason for this, as well as a reason for your fascination with the phenomenon. It is clear that you did not pick this subject, but just like all the paranormal phenomenon, you deal with it. It picked you.’

Kat breathes out and shakes her head. Sunshine really wants to know who this guy is and why he cares so much.

‘If you look deep enough into this subject, the subject of Black-Eyed kids, I believe you will not only find answers to the questions you seek about the BEKs, but also answers you seek about yourself and the whereabouts of Nolan. There is no one more suited for this journey than you, but you already know that.

Sincerely, Tom Waters.

PS. Do not always trust those around you. There are some who are not what they seem.’

Silence.

“All right,” Sunshine says, “that was a.. thanks.”

Uncle Tommy looks at Kat and starts to laugh. “Is that what you meant about it following you guys around?”

Kat sighs. “No, I just— I mean, she gets weird letters all the time, that’s... pretty normal. But..”

“Just like all paranormal phenomenon it picked _you_?” Uncle Tommy reads skeptically. 

Her mother takes the paper out of Uncle Tommy’s hands. “I don’t know, is that something that is always true? I don’t know.”

Uncle Tommy raises his hand. “I don’t know anything about this stuff.”

“I don’t know. I mean, he seems to really want to help, but she gets so many weird letters.”

Yeah, that’s true.

Maybe this one actually means something, though.  
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It’s later that night, and the lights flicker out above Sunshine’s head. Her heart jumps, her fingers twitch, and she jumps up for her camera. Sunshine runs down the stairs and stumbles when a horrible, demonic roar thunders in her ears. “Mom?” she yells, hardly able to hear over the noise. “Mom!”

“What’s that noise?!” Uncle Tommy yells, guiding Sunshine into the living room. Sunshine waves the camera on her mother, whose hands are clenched over her ears.

Uncle Tommy tries to turn a lamp on, but to no avail. “What is that?!” Kat exclaims. “It hurts!”

“It’s so loud,” Sunshine says, nearly doubling down. 

“Make it stop!”

Everything goes quiet.

“That worked?” Kat asks incredulously. She pads over to Uncle Tommy, who’s sitting on the couch. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he nods slowly. “Are you?” He faces Sunshine.

“Are you all right?” Kat worries, looking over her daughter for any signs of harm.

“Yeah,” Sunshine splutters, “I’m fine.” She waves the flashlight across the living room. “Wh— what?”

The front door creaks open behind them, and all three turn, gasping in fright. A dark shape slinks through the darkness, and when Sunshine shines the light on the figure, she almost can’t believe it. It’s _Nolan_. 

“Nolan?” Kat asks, voice breaking.

“Nolan,” Sunshine says, worried. This seems familiar..

He turns to them from the kitchen, and his eyes are pure black. Nolan winks and disappears behind the wall. What the hell. It’s happening again!

“What are you doing here—” Kat’s breathing hitches when she sees his eyes.

Uncle Tommy staggers. “Woah.”

“Where is he going?” Kat cries.

“Nolan.” Sunshine slides into the kitchen, green eyes narrowing. “Nolan!”

Her mother follows close behind, peering up the stairs. “Where is he?” When Sunshine begins to climb the steps, Kat’s jaw drops. “Wait, you’re going _up_ there?”

“ _Sunshine_ ,” Uncle Tommy sharply says from below.

“Yeah,” she mumbles, mind swirling. All she knows is that she needs to follow Nolan, or Black-Eyed Nolan, or whoever this is. He’s calling out to her, and she needs to finally understand what’s going on.

“You’re here to protect her,” Kat furiously mutters to Uncle Tommy. “You go!”

“Hey, be careful,” Uncle Tommy says softly as he climbs the stairs, listening to Kat.

“Nolan?” Sunshine calls, ignoring her not-uncle for a moment. “It’s okay,” she finally replies, “I don’t think he’d hurt me.”

It’s true. If Nolan pulled a gun on LeMaster just for _her_ , she’s pretty sure Nolan’s gonna, y’know, try and keep her safe. Sometimes, though, finding answers may rely on taking risks. This is one of those moments.

Sunshine’s not scared. She swears.

“Nolan?” she asks again, rising to her full height when she reaches the second floor. Uncle Tommy breaths heavily behind her, clearly not used to this whole ghost exploring thing. “Nolan?”

“Tommy, what’s wrong?” Kat whispers.

“Oh, god,” he mutters, placing his palm on his forehead.

Sunshine turns around and her eyes widen she sees Uncle Tommy hunched over, coughing. He rushes past Kat down the stairs, yelling through his lips. 

“Tommy, what’s wrong?!” Kat exclaims.

“Tommy!” Sunshine attempts. 

“What’s wrong?” They follow him down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Uncle Tommy hunches over the kitchen sink and opens his mouth. Strands of thick blood leak out, staining the sink crimson. Sunshine can smell the copper, and she’s nearly blown back by a myriad of flashbacks. _The little girl in the bathroom, the demon locking me inside the bathroom, Mom standing over me in the middle of the night, the exorcism, Frederic Loren dragging Nolan down the hallway..._

It’s almost too much. She’s surprised she doesn’t throw up. Her eyes are glued on Uncle Tommy, though, and she can’t help the gasp that wrenches from her throat.

“What is that?!” Kat screams.

Uncle Tommy begins coughing profusely, more blood leaking out of his mouth.

“Ew,” Sunshine cringes, stomach churning.

“It’s okay,” Kat soothes, rubbing her hand in circles along his back, “it’s all right.”

Uncle Tommy stops coughing and holds his mouth, trembling. “What the hell is that?” He stops. “Oh, it tastes so bad.”

“Ew, it smells.” Kat closes her eyes as Tommy washes his hands, spluttering once more.

“You all right?” Sunshine murmurs.

“Yeah,” he says, moving past her to wipe his mouth and hands with a paper towel.

“Okay.” Kat reaches up and brushes Uncle Tommy’s hair back. “Okay.” She anxiously laughs, and so does he. “You’re scaring me.”

Uncle Tommy smiles, but it’s pained. “So that’s what it’s like here, huh?”

Sunshine feels something in her gut again. She narrows her eyes and turns around, flicking the flashlight near the front door. She gasps when she sees Nolan slumped on the floor, head bent awkwardly.

“Oh, jeez,” Uncle Tommy startles.

Kat takes a slow step forward. “Nolan?”

Sunshine shakily walks toward him, taking note of the black cloth wrapped around his eyes. He also has something wrapped around his hands— he’s bound.

“Is he tied up?” Kat whispers.

“Nolan?” Sunshine’s voice breaks at seeing her friend like this, because damnit, it _hurts_. “Nolan.” Her voice is softer than usual. She wishes she could just give the poor guy a hug, but something tells her this isn’t really... well, _him_. Maybe it’s a vision, or a sign, but something is definitely wrong.

It’s a message. Sunshine can feel it.

Sunshine stands in front of him, shining the flashlight on his head. He twitches when she calls his name again, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Nolan.” Sunshine bends down beside him. “Nolan?” She closes her eyes and breathes out, re-opening them and reaching forward. She slips the black strip of cloth away and her heart jumps when he looks up.

His eyes are pure black.

Kat yelps and Sunshine staggers back, caught off guard. Nolan cries and splutters out blood, sobbing and screaming. Kat yells and pulls Sunshine back into the darkness.

When they look back toward the door, he’s gone.

“What the...” Uncle Tommy mutters.

“Where’d he go?” Kat whispers.

“Did you see him leave?”

“He didn’t _leave_!” Kat glares at Uncle Tommy. “We would’ve heard the door open!”

“Nolan?” Sunshine yells, but the world is quiet again, and the house is dark. The pain in her gut slowly recedes. It’s gone.

Uncle Tommy opens the door and looks around. “Nolan.”

“Tommy, he’s not _out_ there,” Kat sighs. “We would’ve heard the door open.” She shakes her head and glances at her daughter. “He _sucks_ at this!”

Sunshine notices a dark spot on the floor and doubles back, shining the light. It’s a pool of the dark substance, and— oh. That’s where he’d... well.

“I think it’s what you had in your mouth, Tommy,” Kat murmurs.

“Nolan?” Sunshine whispers.

“I don’t think that _is_ Nolan, honey.”

“Well, I know it’s not _Nolan_ ,” she snaps. Sunshine isn’t stupid.

At least, she doesn’t think so.

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Sunshine’s thinking about everything that happened the night prior, and she isn’t exactly sure _what_ to think. Thankfully, Uncle Tommy is okay. The blood, or— black goo, or— well, whatever _that_ was is... definitely interesting, but he’s fine. No weird side effects or anything of that sort.

She still hasn’t heard from Nolan, and the more days that pass, the more worried she gets. She hasn’t actually _seen_ him since October 31, and that was... what, fourteen days ago? It’s just not like him.

She honestly wishes Victoria would just show up again. That would be kinda— y’know, handy. Clearly, though, she isn’t going to. Which, well. Sucks.

Sunshine talks about her BEK movie kickstarter, but it’s hard to focus when she’s so stressed out about everything going on. Ugh.

On another note, Sunshine got the brown— uh, goop?— tested to find out what it is at a local college. Apparently, they’re working on it right now. And since Uncle Tommy’s staying with them for a while, Sunshine can catch him up to speed on everything that’s happened. 

And talk about some theories.

They’re in the kitchen and Uncle Tommy is sitting on the counter, Sunshine facing him as she leans against the sink.

“So, I’ve been doing some research,” he explains, “about Black-Eyed People...”

“‘Kay,” she nods, stirring up her smoothie with a spoon.

“Um, there’s a lot of theories out there about what, like, the eyes themselves represent— lots of it is they’re evil, or a demon, or they just have no soul... I started looking for, just, anything that could make sense of it, and one of the things I saw was about this thing called _Astral Projection_?”

“Okay...” Sunshine narrows her eyes, not entirely sure what that is.

Good thing Uncle Tommy continues. “Which is where you’re— _projecting_ your body into another place or time.”

She raises a brow, but nods anyway.

“And that the black eyes can represent the lack of soul, since that’s not their body, and that, like, a demon can— project— in the form of another human.”

Uh. Okay. Makes sense?

“So what if it’s— a demon is projecting Nolan _here_ to try and lure you into a trap?”

“Hmm.” Sunshine thinks, tilting her head. “ _Weird_.”

“But y’know, it makes _sense_.”

“Yeah...” Uncle Tommy takes the smoothie from her, but she doesn’t mind, because she’s thinking. “So does that mean Nolan’s, like, tied up somewhere?”

“He could be,” Uncle Tommy insists, shrugging.

“Is he... in _trouble_?” That’s the only thing that makes sense to her right now, because again, Nolan isn’t one to miss the spotlight. Being gone for so long... it’s not right.

Uncle Tommy nods. “He could be in danger somewhere, yeah, I mean— a demon possessed your mom, I mean, anything’s possible at this point, right?”

“So true,” she mutters. “Hmm. Okay. So demons, possession, astral what..?”

“Astral projection.”

She looks at the camera. “Astral projection.”

Looks like she’ll have to ponder on _that_ one for a while.

⠀⠀⠀  
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Sunshine read a comment that basically told her that she should— well, _talk_ to the spirits. And it’s not like she follows all of the comments, but this one sounds... logical? She’s read up on it and she’s willing to try.

“So. Yeah.” She turns the camera around to show the other two on the couch. Uncle Tommy waves. “Mom and Tommy are here for... backup.” 

Kat looks at Tommy. “That’s you, you’re backup.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah.” He shows his muscles.

“You don’t think anything’s gonna happen, do you?” she laughs.

“I don’t think anything’s gonna happen.”

“Well that’s cause _you’re_ here,” Kat snickers.

“Yeah, I’m... good luck.” He smirks at the camera.

“Here.” Kat reaches forward. “I’ll hold this.” She takes the camera from Sunshine— rude— and leans back, getting a full view of the table. They have three candles in front of them. This is a shitty séance, basically. 

Tommy leans down and rests his arms on the table, rearranging the candles without lighting them. Sunshine looks around, pursing her lips. “Okay,” she breathes, biting the inside of her cheek and shrugging. “Anna...? Are you.. here..?”

Silence.

“Ask her again,” Kat says.

“Anna,” Sunshine calls louder, looking around and ignoring Tommy’s impatient shifting. “Are you present?”

Tommy looks back and mouths something to the camera, but jumps when there’s a knock somewhere in the kitchen.

Kat’s eyes widen. “O..kay..”

“Anna?” Sunshine whispers.

“Was that a yes?” her mother muses.

“She’s here,” Tommy snorts. “This thing actually works..?”

Kat shrugs lightly. “Could’ve been a coincidence.”

No, don’t think so, Mom. “Anna, will you knock on the table if you understand?” Sunshine asks.

“That’s good.”

There’s a knock right next to them, and everyone jumps. 

“Okay,” Kat mutters. Looks like this is the real deal.

“Ask her somethin’ else,” Tommy shakily offers.

“What, like what? Like— favorite color?”

Tommy glares at Kat. “No, not like—” He rolls his eyes.

“She has to be able to knock,” Sunshine sighs. Is she the only one that knows how to do this?

“Um.” Tommy leans on his elbow. “Didn’t that LeMaster guy say, like, the ghosts will find you?”

She narrows her eyes. “Yeah.”

“So maybe... we should ask her if there’s—” He trails off.

“How many have found her?” Kat sniggers.

Sunshine nods slowly. “Okay.” She thrums her fingers together, attempting to relax her shoulders. “Anna— will you knock once for every spirit that’s present?”

And knocking she does. Everyone counts out loud as it happens, and the hair on Sunshine’s back stands up. Anna might be peaceful, but this is still scary as hell.

When they reach four, Tommy looks at the camera, shocked and wide-eyed.

“What?” Kat mutters.

It continues. Eight.

“You’re _kidding_ me,” Tommy says, dumbfounded.

That dark, twisted gut feeling returns to Sunshine.

Ten.

“Okay, _no_ ,” Kat says shakily. Eleven. “That is not possible.”

Thirteen.

“I am so done with this crap,” Tommy sighs.

Seventeen.

“ _What_ ,” Kat mouths.

Twenty-two.

“Honey,” Kat whispers, eyes wide. This isn’t— this isn’t _normal_.

Twenty-three.

Tommy wheezes out a disbelieving laugh.

Twenty-six.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” he giggles, covering his mouth.

Anna stops at 34. Sunshine’s batteries die, but— Okay. Wow. That’s a... that’s a _lot_ of fucking ghosts.

It’s a good thing Anna stopped there, because Uncle Tommy was gettin’... really crazy. But, still, she’s pretty confident that the kickstart and everything is the right path. Tom Waters is saying she can learn stuff about herself, _Nolan_ and all of that— now is the best time to learn. She needs to understand.

It’s good. Things.... things are good, considering.  
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Things aren’t good.

Sunshine hears a noise four days later on the stairs. She’s kind of hoping it’s Nolan— or, well, astral projection Nolan, but is still freaked out. 

“Anna?” she calls out, “is that you?” Sunshine crosses into the kitchen and walks up the stairs, looking around. “Anna. Anna? Are you there?” Maybe after the séance, she wants to talk more. Sunshine can handle that. She’s pretty sure she can, at least.

Something twists in her stomach and Sunshine whirls around, looking down the stairs. She gasps when a hand slips underneath the stairs— if she’d turned around any later, she would’ve missed it.

Fuck. She doesn’t want to go down there. But she has to, doesn’t she? She can do this. She’s— she’s no pussy, right?

Sunshine whimpers when she rushes down the steps, terrified the hand will reappear and— like, drag her down or something insane. God, she doesn’t even know anymore. Nothing happens, though, so she stumbles toward the opening under the stairs, darkness blanketing the room. “Is anybody there?” she whispers anxiously.

No answer. Sunshine opens the door slowly and screams when a dark shape lunges for her. _Nolan_. He snarls and lashes out, but before he can touch her, he’s... gone.

Oh. _Oh_. Sunshine nearly passes out when she looks down to see the black goo spread over her arm. “Ew. Ew. _Ew_!”

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So. This is gonna sound— this is gonna sound _really_ stupid, and she hates to say it, but Sunshine is pretty sure— well—

She’s pretty sure Anna _spoke_ to her. She told Sunshine she’d missed something and— well. Missed _what_?

Sunshine sits down at the dining room table and looks down at the photo of the warehouse, the words “GO HERE” splayed on top. Y’know, the one she’d done her Nancy Drew schoolwork on? Where they’d found the address on the back? Yeah, that one.

There’s gotta be something else here.

She holds the paper up to the light and squints. Her eyes widen slowly when she spots something, so starts to scribble in that area with her pencil.

Hmm.

“3:00 AM.”

Awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another long chapter enjoy hopefully we see nolan again soon~


	46. Chapter 46

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Scooby Gang arrives at the warehouse to search for Nolan. Victoria makes an appearance and gives the family a history lesson.

Sunshine, Kat, and Uncle Tommy are at the warehouse. It’s 3:00 AM and definitely too late to be going on an adventure like this, but Sunshine knows it’s important. She’s always had that gut feeling about the warehouse, and now, maybe she’ll get some answers.

“There’s the door,” Kat points, scrunching her nose as she glances around the area.

“It looks empty,” Sunshine mutters. The lights are off and there aren’t any cars here but— well. You guessed.

“There’s a lock,” Uncle Tommy says, striding up to the glass door. Kat pulls on the handle, as if the door’s just gonna magically open.

“Clearly that didn’t work,” Sunshine snorts.

Uncle Tommy pauses and motions toward the right. “There’s another one down there.”

“Go try it,” Sunshine says.

“I don’t even think anyone’s here!” Kat exclaims, but grudgingly follows anyway. Uncle Tommy tries the door handle, but it’s to no avail.

“They’re all locked...” She furrows her brows and wonders what the reason for coming here is. Hell, maybe a fan sent a fake letter just to trick them and laugh about it later. God. She hopes that’s not the case.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Everyone gasps and whirls around, wide-eyed. Sunshine flicks her flashlight to the mysterious person’s face and— oh!

“Hi,” Sunshine breathes, smiling at Victoria.

Thank _God_.

She slowly strides past them, looking the locked door up and down. “Sunshine,” Victoria says.

“Y- yeah?”

“It’s very important that you develop your abilities. Are you aware of that?”

Sunshine staggers over her words. “I.. am now.”

“And do you know why?”

“No...?”

Victoria doesn’t blink. “It’s in order to fulfill your potential.” A pause. “Do you understand this?”

“Mhm..”

“Okay.” Victoria turns away and walks closer to the warehouse.

“Both of the doors are locked,” Kat offers.

Victoria opens the door.

“What the hell,” Sunshine mutters, but follows anyway. She follows Victoria inside the building, trying to adjust to the pitch black darkness inside. 

Victoria stops and turns. “Do you know why you’re here?”

“Um.” Sunshine hands the camera off to her mom. She dumbly blinks before that feeling returns, constricting in her chest, oozing in her stomach. She hardly has to think about it. “Nolan’s here.”

“ _What_?” Kat asks.

“Nolan... he’s here.” She looks at the group, eyes brightening. 

“How do you know?”

Sunshine doesn’t reply.

“You have to find him,” Victoria nods.

Tommy steps forward and looks around the warehouse. “Nolan!” he yells. His voice echoes through the building.

“Okay,” Kat mutters.

Sunshine winces. “You really feel like that helped?”

“No, I don’t.” Kat rolls her eyes, and Sunshine has to agree on one thing— Tommy _is_ bad at this whole ghost exploring thing.

“Do you think this is the right way, Sunshine?” Victoria asks from behind. 

Huh? Wait, she’s meant to lead the _way_? She only knows Nolan’s here — not where he _is_. “I— I don’t know.”

Kat cuts in, anyway, saving the day. “You know what, it just seems like it would make more sense to go start in the, like, office area or whatever, there’s _light_ there.”

Sunshine swipes the camera from her mother and looks around the huge building, biting her lip. Where can she start? There’s so many places to look, and Sunshine has a feeling that if they don’t find Nolan by sunrise, they’ll never be able to find him again.

“Let’s keep moving, Sunshine,” Victoria orders. She complies with ease, following her into a brightly-lit hallway.

“I like this room,” Kat smiles. “Bright light.” 

They enter and no one’s inside— only a window of their reflection stares back.

“Why can’t he be in here?” her mother complains.

They enter another branch of the warehouse, Tommy leading. “Nolan?” he calls again, but not nearly as loud. Thank Christ, they’d wake up the whole world.

Now they’re walking through a maze of offices, but all of them are... empty.

Kat touches her shoulder softly. “Do you feel anything, honey?”

“I don’t know,” Sunshine admits. She can’t tell if it’s actually there, or if she’s just making this feeling up. 

“Nolan,” Tommy calls again.

“He’s not down here,” Sunshine mutters, then pauses when she sees a set of steps. “There’s an upstairs.” She rounds the corner and stumbles back when Anna faces her, white cloth and all. She turns and disappears behind the wall.

Victoria is suddenly beside her. “It’s okay,” she says. “She’s there to help.”

Okay, well, if Victoria says so.

Sunshine follows Tommy up the stairs, narrowing her eyes. The halls are becoming tighter, but she feels less stressed because— well, there isn’t all that _space_.

“Nolan?” Kat says.

“Make sure you’re focused,” Victoria advises.

Duly noted. 

“You can do it.”

Can she? Sunshine breathes in and something just makes her— speak. “Nolan?”

“Really concentrate.”

Sunshine looks inside all the rooms, frowning.

Victoria hums. “Nothing.”

“We’ll find him,” Kat murmurs soothingly.

They continue walking until something stirs inside Sunshine again. She knows before it even happens. “Hey.”

They turn around— Kat and Tommy much more startled than Sunshine— and see a dark figure standing in one of the rooms, face hidden behind a black hoodie. Blood rushes to Sunshine’s ears.

“What do you want?” Kat says in a loud, clear voice.

The figure begins to move forward, hands in fists at its sides.

“Run, run, run!” Victoria yells. Sunshine wastes no time and whips around, crying out as she speeds away, legs carrying her faster than ever before. Fear propels her forward and she hardly hears the yells behind her, her feet carrying her into another empty office.

Sunshine hesitates and turns, waiting for that— that _entity_ to attack her, but nothing’s there. Victoria and Kat are standing around Tommy, who’s on the floor, resting next to the closed door. Oh, wonderful. They’re _trapped_.

“What _was_ that?!” he exclaims.

Victoria sighs heavily. “That was a Groundling.”

“ _What_?”

“A _Groundling_ ,” she repeats, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

“What’s a Groundling?!” Kat asks.

“It’s a...” Victoria narrows her eyes. “It’s a human servant.”

“Uh. Okay.”

“It’s a human servant that serves the Markons.”

What are all these words again?

Kat sarcastically says, “Oh, the Markons.”

“What’s a _Markon_?” Tommy demands.

“A Markon is the highest power in the evil realm, and they give power to people like the Groundlings— people who are trying to gain evil power.”

“Evil power,” Kat quietly echoes.

Well. _Wonderful_.

Tommy shakes his head, confused. “So that guy’s trying to gain... evil power?”

Victoria stands to her full height. “Yes.”

“ _How_?”

“Because the Markons will give it to him, like they have given power to such people as the Black-Eyed People—”

Kat gasps.

“—The Shadow People, The Mothman.”

“So he— he works for them?” Kat whispers.

“Yes,” Victoria nods.

“Why— why is he here?”

Victoria tilts her head to Sunshine. “He’s here for her.”

“ _Sunshine_?” Tommy asks incredulously.

“Why?” Kat cries.

Victoria sighs again, probably fed up with having to do all this explaining. Wait, _how_ exactly does she know all of this again? “The Markons— they take away all power that is good. All power in the paranormal realm that is good, like the Luiseach. They want to take it away, and they want to give that evil power to such people as the Groundling, who is working for them.”

“Okay..” her mother murmurs. “Now what? We’re stuck!”

Tommy starts to panic. “So he’s here after us and we can’t do anything?!”

“We’re totally trapped?” Kat also panics.

“We’re not trapped,” Victoria explains. “He’s gone.”

“What do you mean? How do you know?!”

Tommy laughs anxiously.

“He’s gone?” Sunshine whispers.

“I _know_ he’s gone,” Victoria says.

“ _How_?” Tommy snaps.

“They don’t work like that, once we are in a confined space, he can’t come after us. They _leave_.”

Kat shakes her head and looks at her daughter. “Sunshine, what now?”

“Sunshine, it’s up to you.” Victoria nods at her. “We have to keep searching, and we have to search _now_.”

Sunshine purses her lips. “We gotta find him.” No one moves. “Come on,” she orders.

“You sure?” Tommy inquires from the floor.

“Yeah.”

“She can do this,” Victoria stresses.

“ _Get up_ ,” Sunshine says in a harsher tone.

“I assure you, that Groundling is not out there anymore.”

Tommy and Kat stumble to their feet, grudgingly accepting.

“What else is?” Kat darkly mumbles.

“Sunshine,” Victoria calls, ignoring Kat. 

“Yeah..?” She turns around, eyes wide.

“I want you, just for one minute, to completely focus on Nolan. This is very important. Focus on him, and you will find him.”

“Okay...?” she mutters, facing away and stopping in her tracks.

“Should we hold hands or something?” Tommy whispers.

Sunshine ignores them and lets the world melt like ice around her, dripping colors and voices down her skin. She closes her eyes and breathes in roughly, feeling the rhythm of her heart skipping in her chest. Sunshine pulls that gut feeling from her stomach and tugs at it, focusing on Nolan— his face, his voice, even his _soul_ — and it all comes rushing to her.

“He’s—” She splutters, “He’s downstairs.”

“What?” Kat says.

“He’s down there,” Tommy tries to explain.

Excitement and terror push Sunshine forward. She leads the group to the stairs and rushes down them, heart tugging. She can feel the energy pulsing, whispering for her to follow.

“Now what?” Kat stands beside her daughter as they reach the bottom floor, suspiciously looking around for any clues. What are they, the Scooby Gang? “Which way?”

Sunshine focuses again, but the feeling is less severe and easier to follow. She turns to the left and crosses the brightly-lit hallway once more. “This way.”

“What, in the warehouse?” Kat whispers.

“Nolan?” she hesitantly calls out. He’s in here— Sunshine can feel it, shaking in her bones.

“How are we gonna find him?” her mother complains. “This place is _huge_.”

Maybe Tommy’s yelling will help them out. Just kidding. Kind of.

Speak of the devil. “Nolan?” Tommy calls out, the echo quieter this time, but still apparent.

“Sunshine, do you know where he _is_?” Kat inquires.

“Maybe,” she murmurs, because she honestly doesn’t know. Sunshine can feel the pull of energy, but it’s dull and only wavers in a certain direction. Unfortunately, it doesn’t zoom into a hiding spot. That would be cool, though. 

Tommy pushes himself in front of them, leading the way.

“Tommy, don’t just go _charging_ off,” Kat grunts.

“Nolan!” he yells.

There he goes again.

“Nolan?” Kat calls out, softer.

Sunshine scrunches her nose. “He’s gotta be here.” Her heart rate spikes the further they move. 

“Do you feel him?”

“He’s this way,” Sunshine guides, turning.

“Are you sure?”

Yes. This time, she is. “Mmhm.”

“Do you hear something?”

“No. I— feel it.” Her mother probably won’t understand. That’s okay.

Sunshine’s breathing grows heavier, the anticipation filling her with lead. She stops in her tracks when she sees a dark shape slumped to the ground.

“Nolan,” Kat whispers, horrified when he doesn’t move.

“Sunshine,” Victoria says, “be careful.”

Be careful? About _what_? Nolan— he won’t hurt her. She knows it. However, those words make her slightly more anxious. “Why?”

“That may not be Nolan.”

She pauses, feeling again. There it is. “It’s him.” No demon would want to wear that horrible black leather jacket, anyway. Sunshine stands next to him, heart aching to see the black cloth covering his eyes and the tape binding his hands together. “Nolan?” she whispers, voice cracking. She leans down and and gently touches his head. “Nolan.”

Nolan gasps and shoves himself away, covering his head with his hands. Oh, right. He can’t see anything with that— well. “Who’s there?” he demands, but his voice is weak and broken.

“Nolan—”

“Stop it!”

“Nolan! Stop!” Sunshine pats his shoulder. “It’s me.”

He lets out a frail whine, like he’s never been happier to hear someone’s voice.

“It’s _me_ ,” she soothes. She untangles the cloth from his head and he leans back to the ground, blinking up at the ceiling, gaze clouded with terror. He whines again.

“It’s Nolan,” Kat grunts. Yep, no one else would sound like that except him.

“Sunshine,” he whispers, not looking at anyone. She checks his eyes— they’re normal. No pure black there.

“It’s okay,” Kat says, “it’s all right, it’s all right.” Nolan begins to laugh, and it sounds— well, _relieved_. “Here, Sunshine, help me get this off.”

Sunshine helps rip the tape off and leans back again, eyeing him, worried. 

“It’s okay, you’re all right— here, sit up, it’s okay.” Kat tucks a hand under his head and helps him sit up, which he does so quickly but dizzily.

Nolan blinks blearily and glances between them. “What took you guys so long..?” Sunshine realizes he’s been here for almost a full month. She wants to throw up.

Kat sighs. “It’s okay, we’re here now.”

He squints, eyes red with tears. “I— I left my cellphone.” He looks away, tensing up. “I left my cellphone, if I’d had my cellphone I—” His voice wavers.

“Nolan,” Sunshine tries. 

“I forgot,” he mutters brokenly.

“Sunshine,” Victoria says, “your powers are strong, just like your father’s.”

“ _What_?” Kat snaps.

Sunshine stares at her, dumbfounded. She’s holding Nolan’s arm and doesn’t really want to move away, so Victoria shifts closer. “Like my—?”

“Just like your father’s.” Victoria shows the hint of a smile. “Your father was a Luiseach.”

Sunshine sucks in a deep breath.

“But then he turned over to the Markons.”

Markons equal.... bad guys. Shit.

“And he’s turned evil.”

She doesn’t know what to say. “He— he what?”

Victoria breathes out a puff of air. “All you have to know is that you have what it takes.”

Sunshine can hardly wrap her head around this. So— so her _dad_ is a Luiseach-turned-Markon? But...? “Why— why are you telling all of this to me?”

“Because... soon you’re not going to trust me.” 

She stops. “When?”

Victoria’s face remains blank. “I don’t know when.”

“Why am I not gonna trust you anymore..?”

Victoria looks down in annoyance, then raises her head slightly. “Because you shouldn’t.”

Um. Okay. Cryptic, much?

Kat snaps them out of their staring contest. “Where’s Tommy?!” Sunshine whips around. “Tommy!”

“Sunshine,” Victoria calls. “There’s not much time. We must go, quickly.”

Her mother’s breathing grows more labored. “Tommy!”

Sunshine shakes her head and ignores Victoria— “We’re running out of time!” — and instead walks back into the office area, face set into a determined look. Hopefully Nolan’s following them.

“We have to find him,” Kat breathes. 

Sunshine closes her eyes, and feels that familiar tug. “He’s upstairs.”

“ _What_? How do you know?”

“I just know,” she says with an edge to her voice, rushing up the steps along with her mother.

They look around the second floor and Sunshine tenses when she hears a deep cough from a room with a closed door. A high-pitched snarling nearly knocks Sunshine off of her feet, but she pushes the door open with a hand anyway and gasps at the sight.

Tommy is being pinned to the ground by— oh, god, is that the _Groundling_?

“Tommy,” Kat whispers, and the Groundling snaps its head, noticing them. It rushes forward and Sunshine feels something deep within her soul. She closes her eyes, braces herself, but... nothing comes. The Groundling is gone.

“Tommy!” Kat screams, rushing forward when nothing happens. “Are you okay?” He coughs desperately. “It’s all right, it’s all right— he’s gone.”

Tommy looks up and sees Nolan, tiredly standing next to the door. “Oh, my god,” he says. “It’s Sunshine’s boyfriend!” He wheezes out a laugh.

Kat rolls her eyes. “Okay, Tommy’s fine,” she announces to the class.

“Are you all right?” Victoria asks.

He nods slowly. “Yeah.” He pauses to catch his breath, sitting up slowly. “It felt like— like he was trying to pull out my soul or something.”

“What?” Kat mouths to Victoria.

She frowns. “I’ve heard of Groundlings trying to do that before, but— it’s rare. There’s a possibility that maybe he was trying to put something _in_ your soul.”

“ _What_?” Kat exclaims.

“I don’t know because of the fact that you are around Sunshine frequently..”

Kat looks down at him. “Do you feel like anything’s inside you..?”

He sighs. “No more than you do.”

“But right now you feel okay?” Victoria questions.

“Yeah. Okay.” He stops and glances back at Nolan, pointing. “How did you— how are you okay?”

Nolan realizes he’s being talked to and nonchalantly turns his head, shrugging. “Oh, you know. Two weeks in a basement, it’s not so bad. Free meals.”

Sunshine doesn’t want to tell him it’s been much longer than that.

Tommy laughs at that.

“Lots of rest,” Nolan sarcastically continues in a bored voice.

“You’re clearly fine,” Sunshine huffs, but inside, she’s relieved.

“ _Clearly_ ,” Kat echoes.

“I like this guy,” Tommy giggles.

Victoria cuts in. “He’s okay because he’s called an Awaken.”

“ _What_?” Kat snaps.

“An _Awaken_?” Tommy asks, stupefied.

Wait, Nolan— Nolan is a _what_? Sunshine glances at him, but he turns his chin away, refusing to meet her gaze.

“An Awaken,” Victoria nods. 

“What’s that?” Tommy whispers.

She hums. “It’s basically the fact that he had a near-death experience— he’s had some sort of paranormal—”

“How do you know about that?” he hisses defensively.

“How do I know about that?” She looks at him. 

“She knows everything,” Kat mumbles.

Maybe that’s why Nolan was in a coma for so long. She still needs to interrogate him about that little bit of information.

“All right, I’ll take it,” he finally says.

“You now have some paranormal power. Have you been able to hear voices? Been able to project yourself through time and space?”

Oh. Holy shit. Victoria’s on to something, here. Maybe Nolan isn’t crazy!

“Yeah, a bit, why?” he asks, brows furrowing.

“You have those abilities now because... you’ve been hanging around Sunshine.”

Tommy blinks. “So we’re, like, getting powers?”

“The more and more you hang out with Sunshine, the more you are around Sunshine, yes, that is possible.”

“What the—” Kat drops her arms. “That’s totally not fair, I don’t have any powers!” Tommy laughs. “Why do you guys get all the powers? I wanna project! I wanna be able to do something! That’s not fair!” she whines.

Tommy smirks. “We’re just that much cooler than you.”

She scoffs. “Thank you so much, I’m glad you’re _feeling_ better!” He laughs again. “He’s _fine_ —”

Sunshine feels that pulse writhe away. “Victoria?” she instinctively calls out. When Sunshine turns to where she’d been standing, she’s not there.

Kat’s eyes widen. “Wait, where’d she go?”

“Did she—?” Tommy giggles. “That’s so cool.”

Oh, great. Looks like Nolan and Tommy are perfect for each other.

“It’s not cool, where’d she go??” Her mother looks around the maze of offices, sighing heavily.

Something else— Sunshine feels it. “We have to leave,” she says urgently. “We have to leave.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just _trust_ her,” Tommy wheezes as they begin to run down the stairs. “Nolan, come on, man.”

“I’m sorry, I’m tired,” Nolan sighs.

Well. Leave they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER WAS SO FUN. i love nolan and any angst with him so some of that good ole hurt/comfort really had me feeling some type of way. anyway. part 4 is coming to a close soon! but don’t worry... there’s so much more coming~


	47. Chapter 47

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine finds a film canister in her backyard. Inside contains something so horrifying that she has to take a break from YouTube.

So. Recap on the warehouse.

Sunshine is... feeling some type of way. For starters, she’s glad Victoria was able to show up and help them navigate through the building, but Sunshine also wishes Victoria had just kept her mouth shut— she kept talking and _talking_. She never talks, but now she can’t stop.

It’s not like it was bad or— or falsified information, in fact, it was _good_ , but Sunshine doesn’t want to face the truth. It’s insane. Seriously, all of it.

In addition, Sunshine’s dad is a _Luiseach_? Or, he was and he isn’t anymore..? Something _crazy_ , which is truly the only word she can use to describe all of this bullshit. Ridiculous.

Oh, and then that _dude_ that was chasing them, y’know, the one that attacked Nolan and Tommy? Oh, haha! He was a _Groundling_. No big deal, right? Just an evil servant who helps out the _Markons_ which— Sunshine doesn’t even _know_ what that is. She can’t even understand, other than it’s, like, the head of everything, and then _they_ give all their evil powers out to all these _legends_ like the Mothman and Black-Eyed Kids.

It’s. Crazy.

Sunshine kind of wonders how many Groundlings there are, and how many of those legends started out as Groundlings. Like, seriously, how many have gotten their powers? Mothman was like— ‘Hey! I’m a Groundling!’ and then he’s suddenly Mothman. Wonderful.

And then Nolan. He’s an _Awaken_? Like, somebody who experienced a traumatic event and that event has affected them in a way that they’re now able to—? Have tiny bits of ability of paranormally-ness? She guesses? Oh, and even better, the more Nolan— or any of her family— hangs out with Sunshine, the more powers they’ll develop.

What’s gonna happen with Tommy? She doesn’t really want him to get crazy weird or anything, because he’s fine the way he is. However, he did spit up that weird black goo and was attacked by the Groundling, so, who knows. At least he’s okay. He’s doing just dandy, in fact.

Lastly... what’s the deal with Victoria? Like, she just _shows up_ and then she’s gone? What does she mean they’re not gonna trust her anymore? Sunshine doesn’t know what that means, and it makes her slightly nervous. Seriously. She wishes Victoria would just...explain.

So.

Those are all of Sunshine’s pondering thoughts.  
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Woah. Okay, so, Sunshine just received the results back from the college. Y’know, about the stuff Uncle Tommy and Nolan had spit out? Yeah, that. And, well, everyone on YouTube is saying it has to be ectoplasm, which. Sunshine doesn’t even know what that is.

Oh. Great. So, her research tells her there’s no real _evidence_ of ectoplasm. Like, there hasn’t ever been any real findings on it. So... does it even exist? 

No. Must not be ghost ectoplasm.

Okay, get this. The report the college sent back said that the substance was mostly composed of decomposed _plant material_. Excuse me. What? Huh? The hell does that even mean? They’re spitting up plants? Or— or dirt stuff? Where is it coming from?

It’s weird. Everything in her life is weird now, it seems.  
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Sunshine sees Anna at the head of the stairs and starts recording.

She slowly ascends toward the second floor, breath heavy as she moves. The full black outfit and white-bagged head freaks her out, as it should anyone, but Sunshine just has to keep telling herself Anna won’t hurt her. It’s fine. Hopefully she brings _good_ news.

“Anna?” Sunshine says, biting her lip. “Anna, are you okay?” She makes it to the second-to-last step and hesitates, unsure if she should make the full stride.

She does.

“Anna?” she tries again, voice quieter. Standing over a little girl ghost is, uh. Weird. “Is there something you— you wanted to say to me?”

No answer. She shifts forward and extends her arm, heart skipping. She’s touching the bag. She’s touching the bag over Anna’s dead little head.

Sunshine closes her eyes, re-opens them, and tries to control herself. Hell. It’s now or never, right? She bites the bullet and rips the cloth off, and a deep screech pierces her ears. Anna’s head hangs back and she screams, blurring Sunshine’s world into a static of red and gray.

She reels back, terrified, and drops the camera to cover her face. Quiet. Sunshine squints through her arms and sees nothing there. Anna’s gone.

What. The. Hell.  
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A few days after the weird Anna incident, Sunshine’s watching her dogs play outside in the rain. Oscar starts digging holes— shocker— so Sunshine has to clean him up in the bathtub. Awesome. 

That’s not what’s weird, though. What’s weird is the stuff that was on Oscar’s paws. It was kind of like the not-ghost ectoplasm stuff. The stuff Tommy and Nolan had spit up. The— decomposed plant material..?

Sunshine wants to search around in the yard to see if she can figure out what the hell is going on. She finishes cleaning Oscar, dries him off, and lets him roam the house. Sunshine turns her camera on and slips her green hoodie back on, twirling a rainbow-dotted umbrella in her fingers. She steps outside and props the umbrella out, droplets of rain pattering above her head.

She wanders, just basically looking for holes. And gosh, there are a lot (thanks, _Oscar_ ). She stumbles across one that looks— well, not promising. Okay. Sunshine continues on, humming to herself, trying to figure out where he could’ve dug. I mean, some of the holes look... not hole-ish, and it’s muddy and gross and _wet_ and... yuck. She really doesn’t like the rain sometimes.

Sunshine manages to find a deeper, larger, and muddier hole after aimlessly wandering around for another few minutes. She scrunches her nose at the slick substance caked on top, reflecting the gray sky. “What is this?” Sunshine mutters, crouching down and narrowing her eyes.

Not-ghost ectoplasm? Maybe.

She sighs and reaches her hand forward, scraping through the disgusting mud with her fingers. “Ew.” Sunshine forces herself not to throw up at the feeling on her hands and eyes the substance suspiciously, but uncertainty. “This... kinda looks like it could be some stuff,” she says in a repulsed tone.

Sunshine resumes her clawing and feels something metal scrape across her palm. “What is this..?” She groans and pulls out a mud-caked film canister, stopping herself from slipping on her ass. Her eyes widen at the sight and she completely forgets about the decomposed plant material all over her hands. This is the jackpot.

The real question is— what’s it doing in her _yard_? In a hole, of all places?

Guess she should talk to Kat and Tommy about it.

“All right guys,” Sunshine begins as the group sits around the dining room table, “so I decided to fill them in.”

Kat laughs. “I was wondering why we were here.”

She whips the film canister out, smirking. “Ta-da! Look what I found.”

“Ooooo,” Tommy quips.

“Wait.” Kat looks at it, pursing her lips. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“Tin.”

“Is it a tin?” Kat grips the edges. “It looks like a discus, like—”

“No, it’s—” Sunshine rolls her eyes.

Tommy mimics throwing a discus.

Sunshine snorts. “You didn’t even _do_ track, stop—”

“How do you know?” her mother counters.

Sunshine raises her brows at her, clearly skeptical.

“You don’t know,” Tommy playfully chimes in, then looks back down at the film canister. “Does it open?”

“I think it does.”

“Not very well.” Tommy helps pull the lid off and they all stare at the reels inside.

“Woah,” Kat says.

“I found this in the backyard.” Sunshine looks at them.

“Wait. _Our_ backyard?”

She makes an ‘obviously!’ face. Tommy glances at her, giggling.

“No, really?” Silence. “Are you serious?”

“Did you use, like, a treasure map or something?” Tommy smirks.

Sunshine shrugs. “No. It was in uh, the ground.”

“That’s _cool_!” Kat exclaims.

Tommy grins. “Do you know what’s on it?”

“Home movies,” Kat says excitedly.

Sunshine makes a face.

“What?”

“I hope it’s not home movies, that would be boring.”

“What do you want it to be?”

Sunshine huffs. “I don’t know, somethin’ cool.”

“Oh. Can’t you get it developed?”

“How..?”

“I don’t know.”

Tommy looks up at her mother. “Can’t they do the, uh— like, there’s a company you can send stuff like eight millimeter stuff away to and get it transferred, can’t you?”

Kat shrugs. “I don’t know. _Probably_.”

“We should go online.”

Her mother gasps. “Online! We can get things online.”

“Everything is online.”

“I wanna know what it is.” Kat smiles like a little girl opening a Christmas present. She laughs. “Do you think it’s really expensive, though? I don’t wanna pay a lot of money.”

Tommy shrugs. “I don’t— it can’t be _that_ expensive.”

“We can do a kickstarter for it!”

Kat and Tommy laugh. Sunshine rolls her eyes and drops the lid, looking at the camera with a small smirk. “All right, we’re gonna go look this up.”

Tommy inspects the film. “I don’t see anything.” He lifts the rod out and grits his teeth anxiously. “I don’t wanna break it.” Threads of film curl out from the bottom, reflecting a myriad of colors. He extends it and lifts it to the light. “It’s white.”

Kat snorts.

“It’s white,” Sunshine echoes.

“Good story.” Kat laughs.

“Now, we need to get that developed,” Tommy nods.

Sunshine eyes the camera again. “We’re gonna go get it developed, now that they’re all up to speed,” she sarcastically says.

Tommy raises his brows. “Let’s see if you get Christmas presents.”

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So. The film. Uh. 

Well. That’s an interesting story. To be honest, they’d never actually thought it would be anything about the house, but lo and behold, they were wrong. After getting the footage back, it... well. They’d watched it first, of course, and had been absolutely horrified with the results.

Guess what? It has a lot to do with the _cult_.

The film starts out with an adolescent girl dressed in all black with a white cloth mask— _Anna_ — standing somewhere in the backyard, bushes swaying behind her.

A man walks in from the side, wearing a black suit and the same white cloth over his head. He pats Anna’s head like she’s a pet and stands next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pressing her close. This is what that old photo looks like—the one of the mystery ghosts.

This is them.

Anna tightly hugs the man— her dad?— but he retreats out of the film and leaves her standing alone. Whoever is filming stands close to Anna, and suddenly everything is dark. It peers back in on Anna and her father, except the night sky twinkles above them now.

Father pats Anna’s head again and motions for someone to give him something. Anna rips the bag off of her head and runs out of the screen.

Oh. Oh, yeah— _Victoria_. She drags Anna back into the film to stand by Father, and she’s wearing the exact same tan trenchcoat she always does. Victoria orders Anna to crouch down, which she does, and gives the cloth back to Father.

Father pulls the bag over Anna’s head and Victoria hands him a thick, shining blade. Father moves forward, holds Anna’s head back, and.... well.

It’s the sacrifice.

Not only is Father slicing Anna’s throat shocking, but so is the fact that _Victoria_ was involved. She’s right— they don’t trust her anymore. How can they, after...?

Sunshine.... she’s just glad she didn’t turn out like Anna.  
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Sunshine’s been on YouTube for a year.

Everyone’s fine and Uncle Tommy’s still living with them, as a... protector..? Sunshine thinks that maybe she should just— _stop_. Stop with the videos, stop with YouTube, stop with everything.

Of course, she’s still going to continue her BEK film, since y’know, they raised $10k dollars for it, and she promised it, but... everything else is starting to get a little ridiculous. A little much for Sunshine, which is saying a lot.

She knows her fans won’t be happy, but what can she do? Should she find Victoria? Uncover Nolan’s secrets? Should she do the videos, should she stop the videos? Should she try to uncover more about Anna’s past even though they just saw what happened?

She doesn’t know. Sunshine needs time to think. 

The one year thing is a brighter note. Happy one year— maybe _last_ year— anniversary. It’s been awesome and crazy and... well, she appreciates everyone, especially all of her fans.

Now she just... needs to take a small break, is all. Maybe she’ll continue, maybe she won’t.

Above all else, Sunshine needs to _recover_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, ok, part 4 is over! now on to PART 5! thanks for anyone who’s reading, i appreciate everything!! i’m going to start delving deeper into everyone’s pasts and also include some scenes that weren’t in the videos— at least, this is the plan for the next five seasons.
> 
> it’s been half a year and we’re halfway there. let’s see where this goes!


	48. ✧ PART FIVE ✧

PART FIVE  
_The Hunt for Black Eyed Kids_

**Sunshine, Nolan, and new sidekick Andrew set out on an adventure to hunt for Black-Eyed Kids.**

**Not everything goes as planned.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this may be my most ambitious part yet. writing a one and a half hour movie may take a while, but it’ll totally be worth it, and i hope you guys enjoy as well.


	49. Chapter 49

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine hires a camera crew to start filming her new Black-Eyed Kids adventure. Oh, this is gonna be fun, especially with the whole family involved. Or... not..

On October 21, 2011, Sunshine receives a video that spurs inspiration to take this journey.

A man and a woman are in a car, flitting and giggling with each other— definitely boyfriend and girlfriend. They playfully fight for the camera and Boyfriend grips it, trying to snatch it away from Girlfriend. They don’t see the small child dressed in a black and blue uniform behind the car.

“What the hell?” Boyfriend spits when he sees the child standing next to Girlfriend’s window. She turns, wide-eyed, and flinches when the child knocks on the glass.

Girlfriend rolls down the window. “Are you okay?” She checks the child over for any signs of harm, and doesn’t notice the pure blackness swallowing its eyes.

“Can I have a ride to my mother’s house, please? He’s worried.” It looks between both adults.

Boyfriend shakes his head. “Kid, what are you doin’ out here, do you know what time it is?”

It lifts its brows. “I need a ride to my mother’s house. He’s very worried, and he’s expecting me.”

“Turn that off.” The woman bats at the camera until Boyfriend shuffles away, stuffing it into the seat. When they look up, the child is gone.

“Hold on, I want to make sure he’s not—” Boyfriend checks behind the car with the camera, eyeing the side mirrors. 

Girlfriend narrows her eyes. “No, seriously, let’s go.”

“That was the weirdest..” Boyfriend runs a hand through his hair. “What the hell?”

“Yeah, the kid’s weird, let’s get out of here!”

“Hold on—”

Girlfriend screams. Boyfriend jumps and whips around to see the child banging on his windows with both fists raises. “I want a ride to my mom’s house!” it demands.

“What is he _doing_?” Girlfriend panics.

“What the hell?” Boyfriend doesn’t move.

“Start the car, let’s go!”

“Hold on, hold on—” The child continues screaming endlessly until its nails begin to scratch the glass, head twisting and spinning unnaturally. Boyfriend and Girlfriend scream, and the video cuts.

So, the whole thing is pretty crazy. The fact that it’s real documented footage of Black-Eyed Kids (or BEKs for short) is even scarier. Did Sunshine mentions she absolutely _loves_ this urban legend? Yep, it’s her favorite one. She’s totally obsessed.

Sunshine’s decided she wants to go on this crazy, cool adventure that’s gonna be so exciting, and they’re gonna make a movie about it (hence the whole fundraising thing from earlier), and— yeah. She’s really excited.

Another clip she’s received shows a hooded BEK knocking on the front door of a house. A man opens it and smiles, pointing her in a direction. It’s hard to tell without audio, but he eventually lets the BEK in.

Anything else happens off-screen, but when the BEK steps outside once more and glances up at the camera, its eyes are pure black.

Someone has to get to the bottom of all of this, and that someone— well. That someone is Sunshine. And— her mom, and Nolan, and the handy-dandy film crew she’s hired.

First thing on the list of movie making— meet the cast.

Kat.

“Let’s meet my mom,” Sunshine says, whirling around to face her mother.

Kat passes by her and sits on a black chair, opening her laptop. “Meet me? I’m pretty sure you already know me, sweetie.”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “No, I meant— the viewers, Mom.” She points at the camera that she’s not carrying for once in her life.

“Oh.” Kat snickers. “You’re assuming somebody’s actually going to watch your film. Could just... be you’re talking to an empty room.”

Sunshine laughs sarcastically. “Ha-ha, thanks, that was nice, mom.”

She nods. “Very supportive.” Kat pauses and eyes the cameraman. “That’s gonna take some getting used to, huh?”

Sunshine raises her brows. “What?”

“Just, the—” Kat wiggles her index finger toward the crew. “Guys and the big camera, I mean, usually it’s just..” She leans forward and motions to Sunshine. “You with the... little flip cam. Now I’ve got, like, _men_ in my house.”

Sunshine makes a face.

“Bald guy with the camera and... oddly enough, his equally bald sound guy— did you get a shot of them?”

She smiles, the idea coming to mind. “No, I haven’t, but that is a super idea.” She uses her small camera to show the two men and pauses when Kat begins walking off. “No, Mom, I wanted to talk to you!”

“About what?” Kat grins playfully and strides past her. “Talk about shoes?”

“No, not _shoes_.”

“That’s a change..”

She looks at the camera. “I do... really love shoes, but, _no_ , I wanted to talk to you about the journey? Our journey?”

Kat sits back down on the chair and Sunshine leans across from her on the footrest. “The journey..?”

“Where we go and find the Black-Eyed Kids and..?” Sunshine turns and closes the laptop. “Talk to Tom Waters, you know?”

“Are we still doing that?” Kat asks, surprised.

Sunshine flicks her arm out toward the crew. Obviously! “ _Yes_ , that’s why the film crew’s here!”

Kat raises a brow. “Honey, I’d hardly call them a film—” She bends her fingers to make air quotes, “—crew. It’s just two dudes.” 

Yep, these guys are gonna absolutely hate the both of them when this whole filming thing is over.

Sunshine blinks slowly. “Okay, yes, but they were all I could afford, no offense, guys.”

“So the journey.”

“The journey.”

“Have you _explained_ the journey to your viewers?”

She tilts her head forward. “You mean the empty room?”

Kat laughs and Sunshine sassily swings her head. “Honey, I’m sure somebody’s gonna watch your film— at least _I_ will watch your film!”

“Oh, that’s very sweet, thanks, that’s... so nice,” Sunshine says sarcastically. “I feel like there’s gonna be five minutes of rambling of me just da-da da-da da-da-da, and _nobody’s_ gonna wanna watch that.”

“Well, nobody would wanna watch _that_.”

“Thank you,” Sunshine sighs.

“Do you want me to help you?”

“Yes.”

Kat looks at the camera. “Okay, this is my seventeen-year old daughter. _She_ wants to go find something that doesn’t exist, all because she got a creepy letter from an equally creepy man who says he has information about Black-Eyed Kids, or BEKs for short. But really, I think it was just a ploy to meet her.”

Sunshine shrugs. “Okay, yes, I’ve been obsessed with Black-Eyed Kids for a _very_ long time, and yes, I did a creepy letter from a... _very_ creepy man, uh, but uh— we’re gonna kick this off by going to Portland, Oregon, which is coincidentally a hot spot for BEKs, and also where Tom Waters lives...” She squints. “Anyways, we’re gonna talk to him and— it’s a perfect plan, really. It is.”

Her mother smirks. “Good job, Sunshine. Now go and tell ‘em something interesting or you’re gonna lose them.”

“I am _very_ interesting, thank you,” she says, placing a hand to her chest, “I am awesome.”

“Cute, you’re cute.” Kat tries to brush her hair out of her face.

Sunshine smacks her hands away. “Okay, leave it alone.”

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When Nolan arrives at the house, they get comfortable in the office again, sitting in chairs next to each other.

“So,” Sunshine introduces, “This is my friend, Nolan.”

He’s wearing a _cloth_ black jacket for once, what a surprise, with a black collared shirt underneath. His hair is slicked back and he’s making weird faces at the camera, like he’s some kind of dangerous bad boy. Nolan definitely isn’t. He nods with a smirk. “Hi,” Nolan says in a low voice.

She raises her brows at him. “What are you doing?”

He doesn’t look away from the camera, still smirking, but tilts his head closer to her. “What?”

“Your face, what are you doing?” Sunshine crosses her arms across her long-sleeved blue shirt.

“I’m not doing anything with my face—”

“Yes you are, you’re totally mugging for the camera.”

“I am—” His smirk drops and he pushes his brows together defensively, “ _not_ mugging for the camera.” Nolan looks at her. “ _What_?”

“Yes you are. If you’re trying to make yourself look more attractive, then it’s totally not working.”

He moves his lips but no sound comes out for a moment. “W— well I mean, it’s.. it’s a movie, right?” He motions toward the camera and swings side-to-side in his chair. “We gotta—” He flicks his head and smirks again. “Gussy up a bit.”

Who the hell says _gussy up_?

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “It’s not seduce and destroy, Tom Cruise, okay? If you’re not gonna be yourself, I’m kicking you out.” 

He continues smiling, or smirking, or whatever weird ‘sexy’ face he’s making. “You think I look like Tom Cruise?”

Oh, lord. Help her. “ _No_ ,” she grunts, looking up in annoyance. “I don’t, okay? Just— shut up, can we start over?”

Nolan drops his gussy and looks into the camera, clearly devastated he can’t pretend to be cool.

They begin again.

“This is my friend Nolan.” She points a thumb at him.

He smiles. “Hi.”

Nolan looks over at Sunshine for approval and she nods, going on. “He, uh. He’s been on tons of paranormal adventures with me before—”

Nolan smirks for real, because oh, he’s important, huh? 

“—um, uh, he’s usually the _bad_ influence but.. yeah.”

He looks confused for a moment. “I’m not a _bad_ influence.”

She silently nods at the camera.

Nolan dramatically leans back and looks to the side. “I’m a rogue. I think outside the box, I... encourage you guys to consider options that you might otherwise find—” He scrunches his nose. “Unsanitary.”

“Okay,” Sunshine interrupts, quirking her eyebrows, “well whatever you call it, you’re usually the one that gets us in trouble.”

He ponders for a moment then smiles. “Yes, I am the one that gets you in trouble, and I think that’s why I’m perfect for the adventure.”

She grudgingly claps her hands. “I have to agree.”

Nolan excitedly jumps up, grinning. “So, let’s go catch some BEKs!

Sunshine sighs. “You’re really— too excited right now.”

He continues smiling. “I’m not too excited, I’m the perfect amount of excited! I’m gonna _talk_ to one—”

Sunshine giggles.

“—find out what it thinks and feels.”

“You’re gonna— you’re gonna _talk_ to one?” she laughs dubiously. 

“Yeah.”

“When I showed you the footage you _freaked_ out, you said you would never talk to one—”

He shakes his head, clearly lying. “No I did _not_.”

“—you should’ve seen your face, it was—” She motions to the camera. “Just show it, just show the footage, it’s so funny.”

Nolan’s eyes widen. “No, no no no no, don’t—”

The clip cuts to the camera dude slowly pushing open the door to see Nolan sitting in the chair in front of the computer, Sunshine leaning in another desk chair next to him.

“No, no, no, it’s not safe, go.” He shakes his head at the screen, like these people can hear him. Okay. Sunshine notices the camera man and giggles. “No, stop _talking_ about it, just get out of here. Oh, god.” Girlfriend screams. “They’re gonna die.”

“Hm?”

“They’re gonna die!” He tenses up when the BEK bangs on the window. “Ah!” Nolan points at the child, amazed. “He has no iris whatsoever!” 

The video of the BEK ends. “Sunshine, wha—?! No, no, _no_ , we’re not going anywhere _near_ any of those things—” Nolan points to the floor. “We’re gonna stay here, away from them—”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Nolan—” she wheezes. 

“No.” He leans back, very serious, and crosses his legs. “It’s not okay.”

“—I’ll protect you.”

“You _can’t_ protect me, nobody can, there ha—” He turns his head to the camera man and stops talking, spinning back to Sunshine. His jaw clenches and he nods slowly. “I’m gonna— well. Okay, so, when we go, I’m gonna make sure that you’re okay, I’m gonna keep you safe. And, uh, what we should do is we should, um— definitely investigate fully and, uh, make sure that all of the... your— your mom, your mom’s coming as well, right?”

Sunshine rolls her eyes. “She’ll be there.”

“Good, just because—” Nolan tries to appear relaxed but clearly isn’t. “Uh, to make sure that the number of—”

“Just shut up, Nolan,” she snickers playfully.

Back in real time, Sunshine giggles, not noticing the glare from Nolan.

“Okay, well I had a different memory of that,” he tries, face blank.

“No,” Sunshine laughs, shaking her head.

⠀⠀⠀  
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All four of them— Uncle Tommy, Sunshine, Nolan, and Kat— are gathered in the backyard, where it’s overcast, ready to... do what, exactly? Well, first.

“You should probably introduce Uncle Tommy,” Kat motions.

“Oh, yeah. This is Uncle Tommy.” She points at him.

“Hi,” he greets with a smile.

“I meant... who he is,” Kat explains. “Not— not his name.”

“Oh. Uh.” Sunshine thinks for a second. “He’s not really my uncle, yeah, he’s just.. the closest thing I have other than that woman to, uh, family.”

Kat and Tommy laugh, Nolan subtly smiling along. He’s about two heads taller than Sunshine, though, and she really doesn’t appreciate him stealing her thunder. Rude.

Well. He’s the tallest out of all of them, actually. Did she mention he also has his black leather jacket back on? Yep. Awesome.

“What a sad day,” Kat jokes.

Tommy smiles and crosses his arms. “We’re a good family.”

Nolan looks around in boredom.

“So,” Sunshine claps, “get ready for this adventure, you guys ready?”

Kat and Tommy nod. 

“Mmm,” Nolan shrugs, acting disinterested even though Sunshine knows he isn’t. Ugh. Weirdo.

“What do you mean adventure?” Tommy asks, frowning.

Sunshine glares at him.

“Well, we told you,” her mother says, inclining her head.

“What, shoe shopping?”

“No.” She laughs. “That would just be a Saturday. No, remember, we’re gonna go help Sunshine... make the movie about the BEKs..? Gonna go talk to the guy in Portland? Ringing any bells?”

“I totally thought you were joking about that.”

Sunshine leans her head back. Really?

“If I was gonna joke, it would be about something else, not that. No. We’re gonna do this.” Kat nods at her daughter. “It’ll be great. So..”

“Okay.” Tommy shrugs. “I’m on board.”

“All right.” 

“I— I do wanna say, though, for the record—” He makes a face. “I think shopping would be more fun.”

Sunshine rolls her eyes.

“I don’t think people make movies about shopping.”

“Well, they should—!”

“Okay!” Sunshine exclaims. “Okay, guys, stop. We’re _going_ to Portland, we’re going to capture BEKs on film, okay?”

Kat weighs her leg. “‘Kay, then why are we out in the backyard?” 

“It’s _so_ cold,” Tommy complains.

“It is, okay?” Sunshine sighs. “Now.... it’s well-documented that.. BEKs are— fast. So.”

“So?” her mother hints.

“We have to be fast too.”

Nolan scrunches his nose and tucks his hands in his pockets. “We don’t have to be fast.” He clicks his tongue. “We just have to be slightly faster than the slowest person.”

Tommy laughs and Nolan glances at him, smiling.

“Why are you looking at me?” Tommy asks, grin dropping.

Nolan looks neutral again and turns away.

“So what’s your plan?” Kat asks.

She shrugs. “We’re gonna run.”

“ _What_?”

Tommy giggles again. “Seriously?”

“To the fence and back. Okay, line up, c’mon.” No one moves. “Line up.”

“You want us to run to the fence,” Tommy says incredulously.

“Line _up_.”

Once they’re all in order— Nolan, Tommy, Sunshine, and Kat— Nolan says, “All right everybody, limber up.” Huh? He stretches his legs and leans forward. Tommy crouches and opens his thighs each squat in some weird stretch. “You don’t wanna pull a thigh muscle the _day_ before—”

Kat looks over at the boys. “Are you guys really gonna _run_?”

“ _Yes_!” Sunshine exclaims. She moves into position and ignores Oscar barking in the yard. “Ready? Set—”

“ _Go_!” Nolan screams, beginning to run just a step behind Tommy.

“No!” Sunshine whines, jogging next to her mother.

Kat screams. “I’m wearin’ the wrong shoes!”

“We could go shopping for them!” Tommy yells back.

They all run by the crew, looking like fucking idiots. Wonderful first impression.

Everyone touches the fence and begins to run back. Nolan sprints in the front, Sunshine close behind. Tommy is third and Kat is... well. You guessed.

They end the— race?— and Tommy leans over, breathing heavily. Kat slings an arm around his back. “You _killed_ Uncle Tommy.”

“He’s _fine_ , oh my gosh,” Sunshine snorts. “You’re over-exaggerating.”

Nolan slumps on the side, out of breath.

“Yeah, it really sucked a lot— yeah, exaggerate, yeah, I never do that.” She looks into the camera. “I don’t run.”

“Okay.” Sunshine says.

“ _Ever_!”

“Okay.”

Nolan stuffs his hands back in his pockets. “Oh you’ll run, _Kat_ ,” he speaks dramatically.

“ _What_?” She rounds on him, throwing her arms in the air.

“When the BEKs are after you and me and Sunshine, you’ll _run_.”

Sunshine raises her brows. “I can’t believe you just used her first name.”

“This is so stupid,” Kat growls, “BEKs do _not_ exist, and here we are, making fools of ourselves for a film that _no one’s_ gonna see! Because _you_ got some weird idea—”

Tommy turns on Nolan. “You know what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna _happen_ is you’re gonna go, and I’m gonna get eaten—”

Sunshine raises her arms, stupefied. “No one’s gonna _see_ it, what are you talking about?”

Tommy and Nolan continue arguing, but Sunshine isn’t done. She’s not gonna let her mother just walk off again.

“This is really important to me,” she says, following Kat, “and you’re like— _scrunching_ up my _dream_ , you’re like _throwin_ it up into a ball and you’re, like—” Her voice becomes high and mocking, “I don’t care about anything you have to say, Sunshine, I don’t even really care about you—”

Kat whips around, annoyed. “Yeah, that’s _exactly_ how I sound—”

The camera crew turns back toward Nolan and Tommy.

“Hey, look, I’ve got my own reservations about this, okay? We can’t quit before we even go.”

Tommy crosses his arms, ignoring Sunshine and Kat’s yelling. “You know what we need to do, is we need to find somebody else to add to our adventure pack.”

Nolan stares at him, furrowed brows unmoving. “Okay,” he says, “uhh...”

“Y’know, somebody that’s, like, _crippled_ or something.”

Nolan’s eyes widen. “Jesus!” he exclaims dramatically, looking Tommy up and down. “ _What_?”

“What? If it’s survival of the fittest, I want somebody less fit than me along with us!”

“What? No! No, no no no, no— no cripple— well.” Nolan pauses, then resumes his defending. “No, we couldn’t— we wouldn’t even be able to find one!”

Tommy raises his brows. “ _Craigslist_?”

Well. The start to their journey is just beautiful, ain’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the ending of this chapter was so funny i love this movie but i really don’t remember that much from it so. yeet!!!


	50. Chapter 50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine hits the road with Nolan and— uh, _Andrew_? They travel to Portland to meet with Tom Waters, but he’s a little different than previously expected.

Sunshine’s sitting in her room. It’s the night before the Portland trip and Sunshine is _super_ excited. They’re gonna visit Tom Waters, talk to him about his experience with all the BEK knowledge stuff (which is really exciting), and then they’ll probably go visit some well-known hot spots. Well, she doesn’t really know how Portland knows they’re hot spots— is there, like, a website or something? It’s kind of weird, _but_ , she’s really enthusiastic.

A knock on the door jolts Sunshine from her babbling at the camera. “Yeah?”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt your... camera time.” Her mother sits on the bed next to her. “How you doin’?”

“Good, I’m getting all pumped up for tomorrow.”

Kat nods slowly. “I actually came to apologize..”

Sunshine’s eyes widen. “I’m sorry, _what_ was that?”

Her mother laughs. “You’re gonna have it on film.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Mom apologizes. Make that a whole— whole series on YouTube.” Sunshine makes a face. “I think I probably over-reacted a little bit.”

“A _little_? Hmm.” Sunshine leans against the wall and eyes her mother.

“A little bit,” Kat echoes. “Uh, I guess exercise will do that to me.”

“Yes.”

“It’s just that I’m worried.”

Sunshine raises a brow. “About what?”

“About all of this— about the whole— _adventure_ , and going to Portland, and... all of it.”

She yawns. “Why?”

Kat scoffs.

“I’m _tired_.”

“I _see_ that,” Kat laughs.

“It’s late, man— what, what do you mean? I mean, I don’t understand, why is it a bad idea?” She looks down and picks on her fingernails, a bad habit that’s formed lately.

Her mother hesitates, contemplating. “I think we don’t know what we would get into in Portland, and there’s too many unknown factors with all of it—”

“I’ve researched this for months,” Sunshine counters, “I’ve thought this through, I am _ready_ to do this. I’m very excited and it’s gonna happen.”

“I think just hiring a film crew and doing some internet web searches is not preparing for any of this.”

“Uh, _hello_ , we did personal experience outside, we were runnin’, that was nice.”

Kat sighs. “Uncle Tommy and I have been talking about it.”

Sunshine leans her head back and looks at the ceiling in exasperation. “Of course you have, little traitor.”

“It’s only because.. we _love_ you, and we don’t want you—”

“You still have to put on a fake smile,” she says sarcastically.

“It’s _not_ fake, we just don’t— we don’t want anything to happen to _any_ of us.” Kat waves her hand. 

Sunshine shrugs. “It’s not gonna happen,” she says matter-of-factly, “we’ll be fine.”

“We don’t know that.”

“There’s four of us, it’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think that you’re _getting_ it. I’m saying no. We’re not doing it.”

Sunshine does a double take. Wait, what? _That’s_ where this conversation has been leading?

“As in we’re not going tomorrow, you can— the film crew can film you running in the backyard.”

Well, _that_ would be a stupid movie.

“I already _paid_ them,” Sunshine hisses, pointing to the crew, “I can’t get my money back, can I? Can I get my money back?” They shake their heads. “No. I didn’t think so.”

Kat lightly shrugs. “I’m sorry.” She doesn’t sound sorry.

Sunshine isn’t done, though. “ _No_ , you can’t just— seriously. This has been _months_ of preparation, we have thought this through, I had— I had a _kickstarter_ for this! I had to pay these people! Like, you can’t just _say_ no now.”

Kat shakes her head and presses her lips together. “I can, I’m the mom. I said no.”

Sunshine stares at her, completely baffled. “You’ve _got_ to be kidding me.”

“Mm-mm.”

“It was gonna be awesome. It was gonna be, like, Veronica Mars awesome. It was gonna be _so_ cool, and you’re like the guy from the WB that just cancelled Veronica Mars out of no where.”

Not to mention that Sunshine wants to get her mind away from all the other shit. Victoria’s murder of Anna, Nolan’s strange past, her _father_ being a Luiseach... this is the perfect distraction. She needs it. They all need it!

Kat’s jaw drops. “I am _not_ that guy.”

“Yeah you are. You’re that guy.” 

“No—”

“Yeah, you are.” Sunshine shrugs defensively, trying to calm her anger. “No, I just said it, it’s— it’s done now. Done. You’re that guy. How’s it make you feel? You feel like crap now.”

Her mother raises her brows. “I feel good that my daughter will be safe.”

“No.”

“Here in her little room.”

“Mkay.”

“Yes. That’s what I think.” Kat stands up.

“It’s just little because this is where we live.” Sunshine motions toward the ceiling. “It’s a tiny house. With this _tiny_ room!” Her mother walks out of the room. “You’re that guy!” she yells. Sunshine’s head hangs. “I feel like crap now.”

So.

Contemplating.

Sunshine doesn’t really know what to say. She feels like this adventure simply isn’t gonna happen. It just sucks that her mother is acting like this. Seriously— what’s she gonna do with the rest of the footage she has so far? It’s frustrating and upsetting and she’s sorry the movie is gonna be so short and shitty.

This would usually be the time Sunshine wishes Victoria would come around to help, but oh wait, _no_. She doesn’t.

Ugh. Maybe Nolan will have some ideas.  
⠀⠀⠀  
⠀⠀⠀  
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Sunshine’s sneaking out.

It’s, like, 6 AM and Sunshine’s _sneaking out_. If this isn’t new, she doesn’t know what is. 

Look, okay, it’s not Sunshine’s fault her mom doesn’t want to listen or allow her to do this. It looks like she’s gonna have to do this alone, because Jesus, this _is_ happening. 

Of course, she technically isn’t alone. Guess who’s coming along? Yep. He is.

Nolan’s standing in the front, black leather jacket and all, leaning against her white car with his hands tucked in his pockets. “Morning, Sunshine,” he says sarcastically at her annoyed expression.

“No, cute, really cute, okay.” She rolls her eyes.

“Hello film crew.” Nolan nods at the camera.

“Ready? Let’s go.” Sunshine flicks her keys out from her pockets but Nolan doesn’t move.

Oh. Yeah. She hasn’t exactly told him that Kat isn’t coming.

“Yeah,” he says suspiciously, squinting, “where’s your mother?”

She doesn’t look him in the eyes. “Get in the car,”  
Sunshine attempts to deflect.

Nolan nods slowly, smirking slightly. “Where’s Uncle Tommy?”

“Explain on the way, okay? I’ll explain on the way. Just—” She tries to push him and open the door, but Nolan still doesn’t move. Ugh. Now _he’s_ being annoying.

He considers his options before moving aside, rounding on the other side of the car. “We haven’t even left the house yet and we’re already leaving people behind.”

“Oh my _gosh_ , we’re not leaving anyone behind, we’re just—” She opens the door and sighs. “Get in the car.”  
⠀⠀⠀  
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⠀⠀⠀  
Something Sunshine’s learned from this little experience— Nolan _really_ likes to lecture her on what she should and shouldn’t do. 

“It’s not a big deal,” she grunts, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

“It’s irresponsible is what it is.” Nolan looks at her from the passenger seat.

“The film had to get made, okay?”

“Well, okay, maybe, but your mother is probably gonna _kill_ us.” Wow, okay, someone’s scared of Kat.

“She’s not gonna kill _us_ , first off.” Sunshine rolls her eyes. “Second—”

“Yeah, that’s right, she’s gonna kill _you_.”

Sunshine glares at him. “She’ll forgive me.” She turns back to the camera. “She’ll forgive me.”

“She— okay.” Nolan glances out of the window. “She’s not gonna forg— um. Oh, take this right up here.”

“Oh,” she mocks.

“At the— at the stop sign, just—” He clicks his tongue and points to the right.

“Okay, what—?”

“Just do it.” He smiles. “Trust me.”

“Where are we going?” Sunshine raises her brows.

“Ehhhhh. Okay. You see this little guy right over here?” She can see some teenager standing in front of a white house. “I want you to pull over right here.”

“I have to— pull over?”

Nolan nods. “Just pull over.”

“What— _why_?”

“Because we’re gonna take this guy with us.”

He’s a lame-looking teen wearing a red shirt with a black and blue jacket over. He has blue jeans on, a black hoodie, and medium-length ginger hair.

Fucking fantastic. 

“You’ve _got_ to be kidding me.” She stares at Nolan incredulously.

He smiles. “No.”

She scrunches her nose to mock him and winces when Nolan jumps out of the car to greet strange teenager dude. “Oh, good, you made it.”

“I was hoping you weren’t gonna leave me out here,” the kid says. Oh, he’s also wearing _gloves_. Sunshine already dislikes him. It’s cloudy, yes, but he’s being a little melodramatic. “Cause my mom dropped me off like thirty minutes ago, and it’s startin’ to get kinda cold out here, you know?”

God, even his _voice_ is annoying. High, whiny, bitchy... Nolan’s is tame compared to this. She grudgingly pads to her friend’s side.

“Right, okay, that’s fine,” Nolan nods, towering over both of them. “Uh, Sunshine, this is Andrew.”

“Hi,” she says with a forced smile.

“Andrew, this is Sunshine.” He turns to the bald men. “Andrew, this is film crew. Uh.” Nolan eyes Sunshine, who is staring forward with a very mixed expression. Andrew smiles like an idiot. “We’re gonna go catch monsters with Andrew, okay?”

Andrew steps forward. “So— you’re the real life Sunshine?”

She flinches back, caught off guard by his— excitement. “Oh, hello, yep..” She grunts and tucks her hands into her pockets.

“He’s— he’s what one might term a fan,” Nolan attempts to explain.

Sunshine looks up at her friend. “Where did you find him?”

“Craigslist.”

“You really _can_ find anything—” Her laugh turns awkward when Andrew shuffle closer to her. “—on Craigslist,” she finishes.

“Yeah, you can,” Nolan nods and looks forward. Oh, yep. He’s gonna tell a joke in 5, 4, 3... “Except for, uh. A date.”

“Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s..” She raises her brows at Andrew. “So, you excited?”

He waves to the cameras and laughs nervously. “So, what are we doing?”

Sunshine glares at Nolan. Seriously? He didn’t even _tell_ the guy?

“Uh, don’t worry about that now, Andrew, go ahead and get in the vehicle.” Nolan nods. “And we’ll tell you, uh, when we feel it is appropriate to tell you what’s going on, okay?”

Andrew snaps and smiles. “Do I get shotgun?”

Nolan stares at him.

Sunshine stares at him.

“What do you mean, do you get— no.” Nolan shakes his head. “No, hop in the car.”

“I’ll hop in the backseat.”

“Yeah, there you go.”

“Okay, um—” Andrew raises his fingers to count down. Oh no. Does he have, like, a peanut allergy? “I hope it doesn’t involve swimming, because I don’t like swimming or heights. I don’t really do heights either.”

“Okay,” Nolan says quickly, “no cliffs or waterfalls, got it. Now get in the vehicle.”

“Thanks man, you’re a god.” Nolan opens the door for Andrew and Sunshine backs away, very clearly agitated. Thanks, Nolan. “You— really? This is— we’re—?”

“I’m just being—” He swivels to her once he closes the back door. “Just be cool, he’s a nice kid—”

She turns away and walks to the driver’s seat. “Stop saying be cool, that doesn’t— that’s not helping me feel any better about your idioticness..ness.”

⠀⠀⠀  
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⠀⠀⠀  
So. Tom Waters’s house.

“Hey, uh, Sunshine,” Nolan says when she walks by both he and Andrew, who is messing with his camera.

“Yes.” She lightens her tone just slightly.

“Uh, okay, so—” He’s looking up but eventually cranes his chin to meet her gaze. “We know for sure this is— the— the Tom Waters house, right?”

“Yes?”

“Good.” Nolan smiles. “Also, we know for sure that....? He knows something valuable about the investigation?”

Sunshine raises a brow. “Well, that’s what he said in his letter, so I’m just gonna bank on that there.”

“Okay, well, here’s the thing—” He shifts his body from side to side, contemplating. “People can put whatever they want into a letter, and I just want to make sure, y’know, for _sure_ , for my own—” He laughs awkwardly, but the smile drops immediately after. “—piece of mind, that he’s not absolutely insane and planning to murder us.”

She stares at him. “You brought your rape whistle, right, so..?” That catches Andrew’s attention. Probably a creep.

“Oh, my, my rape whistle—” He sarcastically checks his pockets and grins. “Yeah, yeah yeah, I did. Let’s go.” He jerks his head toward the russet-wooded house.

She makes a face and begins to walk toward the door. “Then we’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, _fine_ ,” he mutters, walking behind her.

“Wait, guys?” They both turn to Andrew, who’s holding his camera in his gloved hands. “So we don’t actually _know_ this person?”

They don’t reply.

“Then why are we going into their... house..?”

Sunshine purses her lips and whirls back. “Okay.”

Nolan smiles. “Because we’re on an adventure,” he says in a tone like he’s talking to a child, and allows a flicker of annoyance to prosper before it disappears. Andrew doesn’t question it.

So, skip boring long intro, but Tom Waters lets them inside and now Nolan’s talking to his camera in the corner like a freak.

“Hello, folks,” he nods, “This is, uh, Nolan, and uh, Sunshine makes, uh, me carry around this camera.” He scrunches his nose. “ _Still_ , in case the film crew decides to leave or— or dies, or explodes.. um.” He clears his throat. “This is them, over here— they’re setting up for our big interview with this Tom Waters guy.”

He tilts the camera over and shows the process for a moment, before furrowing his brows. “And, honestly? I don’t really like this Tom Waters guy. I think he might be a little crazy— a little off his rocker— and, uh, y’know, he has... shifty eyes and difficulty focusing, and I—” Nolan shrugs. “I don’t know, he just bothers me. And I would like to leave this house as soon as I possibly can. Unfortunately, this is Sunshine’s gig, and I have to do whatever she wants.”

Nolan makes a face. “I just think that this Tom Waters guy may be.. a little more dangerous than a kid with black eyes.” He shakes his head and purses his lips. “Well, that’s all.”

⠀⠀⠀  
⠀⠀⠀  
⠀⠀⠀  
When everything is set up and ready for shooting, Sunshine sits in the chair beside Tom Waters. He’s a little different than she’d expected— a stocky guy, a little plumper (not that she has any problem with that) with a graying beard and short hair that slicks over his forehead. He’s wearing a simple pale green undershirt with a lighter kaki jacket, and it’s like he refuses to look at the camera.

Creepy, but... whatever.

“So— yeah. Uh.” She turns to him. “So, Tom, do you wanna talk about the BEK knowledge you have, I mean..? What do you know about— them?”

He bites his lip and breathes in. “I think the real question here is what do you know?”

She furrows her brows. “Um, well, I know it’s a really creepy paranormal legend, and I happen to be really—”

Tom scoffs and looks away for a moment before glaring at her. “You don’t know _anything_.” He swiftly stands up and stomps past her.

“Um, I’m sorry—?” She glances with wide eyes at the camera and jumps up. “Follow him..!”

“You heard me,” he snaps back. “You don’t know anything. You’re just a _stupid_ little girl.”

Oh. Haha. _Okay_. Excuse me?

“A stupid little girl—” He lumbers into the kitchen and opens the pantry, pouring alcohol into a glass cup, “who’s stickin’ her nose where it doesn’t belong.” He breathes heavily. “Listen. You don’t _want_ to be a part of this, all right?” Tom exits the kitchen. “You don’t wanna know— get out of my way.” He shoves the cameraman aside and staggers into the living room. “It’s gonna come around and bite you.”

Nolan instinctively nears Sunshine, fists clenching. He glares at Tom, dark eyes narrowed. Andrew cowers behind them both, filming with his own camera.

“Okay, well, um—” Sunshine stutters, not really sure how to take all of this. I mean, she needs to be professional, right? God, if this were any other time she would be _pissed_... “If I had known you felt this way, I wouldn’t have come all this way, um—” She backs away slowly when he nears her. Sunshine tries to keep her voice steady and calm and offers a reassuring smile. “I mean, you couldn’t have just sent me a message on YouTube like all the other haters? I mean, Facebook? There’s that option too. Okay..”

“Oh, yeah, I could’ve done that,” he says bitterly, taking a sip. “But it’s so much more impactful when you do it in person, don’t you think?”

Sunshine nods slowly. “You’re probably right, um. We should go.”

“Yep,” Nolan says quickly and angrily, “we should go.”

“Thank you for your time..” Sunshine claps her hands.

“You’re going?” Tom snarls.

“Yep,” Nolan says.

“Mm-hm,” she confirms. Maybe they should get that rape whistle out. 

“What are you talking about?” Tom glares at them. “I thought you wanted to know about the Black-Eyed Kids!”

“Not this badly,” Nolan says, then walks past the crew.

“I did,” Sunshine tries, following behind Andrew, “but— clearly you don’t know that much.”

“ _I_ don’t know anything?” He takes a step forward and Sunshine flinches back. “ _I_ don’t know anything?!” 

Nolan crosses to Tom’s side. “Hey, relax, man.”

“How _dare_ you?”

“Woah, woah, woah—” Nolan puts his hands out and his brown eyes widen.

Sunshine glares at Tom. “We should go,” she says in a low voice, not looking away. 

“Yeah.” Nolan nods and points at Crazy Tom. “It was great meetin’ you.”

Tom sighs. “Wait a second, wait, wait—” Sunshine presses herself next to the desk. “Don’t go, all right, look, I’m sorry.” Everyone stops and he wipes his nose. Nolan nears Sunshine again, leaning against the wall. “I’ve got a little bit of a problem with my temper.”

“I’ll say,” Sunshine breathes.

Tom looks at the cameras then back to the group. “I should probably... show you the footage.”

She furrows her brows. “What— the footage? You have _real_ footage?”

He stares at her and nods. “Yeah.”

“Is this some kind of joke?” Sunshine asks awkwardly. 

“No,” Tom sighs.

“Well then.. yeah. Yeah, let’s see it.”

Nolan rolls his eyes.

Maybe Tom Waters is only, like, 99% insane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woooo chapter 50!!! what an accomplishment :o


	51. Chapter 51

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom Waters tells his story, the group gathers more information on the BEKs, and Nolan gives Andrew some advice.

Sunshine sits on the red couch next to, though not too close to Tom, Nolan grudgingly leaning on another red couch to their left. She can tell he doesn’t want to be here, and it’s not like Sunshine really wants to either, but this is footage they might need.

“I’m a retired state cop,” Tom says, holding the tv changer in his hand. “The footage you’re about to see was taken from the dash-cam of my partner’s vehicle.” Everyone nods slowly. “I had that night off.”

He plays the recording, the static buzzing until it clicks to show a park of some sorts. There’s a girl, looking to be around 11 or 12, standing on the sidewalk, staring with dead, black eyes into the camera.

“Oh, well, there she is,” Nolan mutters.

Sunshine breathes in sharply. If this is real— well. That’s a discovery. “Does she have... black eyes?” Don’t crucify her — the video is grainy.

Andrew tilts his head from where he stands. “Yeah...”

She squints. “What is she doing? She’s just standing there.”

“Well, they tend to do that, Sunshine,” Nolan remarks.

She shakes her head. “Mmm, yeah, cause you would know.”

“And there she goes.” Yep, she just— steps out of the frame.

Wait.

Tom turns the television off.

“That’s it?” Sunshine asks.

Nolan grunts.

“Yeah.” Tom rubs his forehead stressfully.

“Is...” Sunshine hesitates. “Is your partner okay?”

He sighs and shakes his head. “No.”

Sunshine’s eyes widen.

“Is he dead?” Andrew blurts.

She widens her arms in a ‘What the hell?’ kind of motion and glares at the kid. Seriously? Nolan eyes him, like he’s an annoying buzzing fly they can’t seem to kill.

“No, he’s..” Tom doesn’t seem immensely bothered, which is fine, but apparently grew furious when Sunshine tried to explain what she knew about BEKs. Yeah, makes sense. “He survived, but, uh— he was never the same after that.”

Nolan clicks his tongue, leaning forward with his hands clasped together. “And what does that mean?”

Tom doesn’t look at any of them. “He never fully recovered.”

“Right..” He nods slowly.

“I mean, after this, he couldn’t even put together one coherent sentence, he—” Tom’s voice shakes. “I mean, he really lost it. They ended up putting him in a mental institution for the rest of his life.”

“Was he a good friend of yours?” Sunshine tries softly.

He looks at her and frowns. “Yeah, we were partners for eight years.” Tom looks genuinely sad, so maybe he isn’t completely insane. “We were pretty close. I wasn’t even there for him that night.”

Andrew takes a picture from the table. “Is this him?” It’s a man dressed in a black suit and gold-rimmed hat, metals dangling from his chest.

“Yeah,” Tom nods.

“Do you visit him?” she inquires.

“I used to.”

“Used to?”

Tom sighs. “The night I went to see him, he uh— he actually seemed to be doing a lot better, like he was recovering, you know? He recognized me, we were holding a conversation, and then—stupidly— I decided to ask him what had happened that night.

“He told me, uh, I’m never gonna be able to forget... what you have to understand is that this guy— he was strong, he was brave— in the eight years that we served together, I never saw anything that he couldn’t handle.” There’s a long pause as he tries to find his thoughts. “When he told me, the look of terror in his face.. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Sunshine stares at him, green eyes wide. “What did he say?”

Tears flicker in Tom’s eyes. “When I asked him what happened at the car that night, he said— ‘I saw the devil. And they call him Mother. He doesn’t just want the flesh— he wants the very soul underneath. He’s coming for me. He’s coming for all of us. And there’s no way to stop it. He is their mother, and he will rend the flesh of any he pleases.’”

Nolan narrows his eyes. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know. But whatever it means, it rocked the very foundations of this man and—” His voice breaks, “turned him into a shell of the person he was before.”

There’s still something missing. “You said you used to visit him, why don’t you anymore?” Sunshine asks.

“He disappeared.”

Wait— “He _what_?”

“He disappeared.. I went to check on him one night in his room and, uh, he was gone.” Tom breathes in and leans back. “Shortly after that, I put in for early retirement. There is an evil out there that we can’t even comprehend, and I don’t want any part of that, and neither should you.”

He turns to Sunshine. “Go home. Go home to your real mother and listen to her, because you don’t want any part of the mother that the devil has in store for you. I can promise you that.”

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They leave Tom Waters’s house and head deeper into Portland for more answers. Ominous and chilling story aside, Sunshine... well. She’s not sure what to feel. Nolan suggested they go to a BEK hotspot and ask around, so, looks like they’re doing that.

However, it’s pointless.

Then, when the sun sets and the darkness of night blankets the sky, they find two homeless women.

“Uh, hi, hello.” Nolan sets his palms on his knees and leans down slightly, as they’re sitting on the ground, wrapped in blankets and warm clothes. He fully crouches to meet their height, and Sunshine goes down with him. “Hi. My name is Nolan, uh— this is Sunshine.”

“Hi,” she smiles.

“And Andrew— uh, we were wondering if you guys have seen anything strange regarding children. Uh, any—?”

“Black-Eyed Kids?”

“Yeah. Kids with black eyes..?”

The blonde woman shakes her head.

“You haven’t seen any?” Sunshine sighs.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Oh. Looks like that’s a dead end.

Until the woman with the green jacket looks up. “I have.”

Sunshine stares at her. “You have?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen some really _creepy_ kids..”

“Wait, really?” Nolan asks.

“Yeah.”

“Where— where did you see them?”

She shrugs. “There’s just a spot where I’ve seen some of them around.”

“Could you— could you possibly show us?” Sunshine inquires.

The woman raises a brow. “Why do you guys wanna go?”

“Uhhh..” Nolan looks at Sunshine. “For fun, I—?”

“Look, I don’t really know anything about these Black-Eyed Kids, but they are _creepy_.”

“Yes, yeah, that’s true.” Nolan looks down. “But we have to find— we need to find out where they’re—”

“Could you _please_ show us?” Sunshine cuts in.

The homeless women exchange a glance. Blonde mutters in Greeny’s ear, who says “Yeah,” though not very optimistically. She frowns when Blondie stops whispering. “Would you guys maybe trade for, like, dinner or somethin’?”

Nolan nods quickly. “Sure, yeah. We’ll bring food.”

“I don’t— I will take you there, but I mean— I’m just gonna say upfront, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I wouldn’t talk to them.”

“Right.”

“Or approach them, but I’ll take you to where they are.”

“Yeah, neither do we.” Nolan points to all three of them. Right, Andrew’s here. “We’re thick, you know? We can’t be helped.” A pause. “We’ll bring food, okay?”

“Okay.” Greeny leans forward. “If you guys wanna meet me— do you guys know where Pioneer Square is?”

“Yes!” Sunshine says excitedly, because maybe they can finally uncover some of these mysteries!

“You wanna meet me there at 10? I’ve never seen any of them, like, until it’s really late at night, but if you want me to be there at 10, I’ll take you to where I see them.”

“Okay, definitely, yeah.” Nolan stands, and the other two follow. And the camera crew, she guesses. “Thank you so much. 10 o’clock.”

“Yeah. If you guys don’t wanna show, I’ll understand.”

“We’ll be there,” Nolan conforms. “We’ll be there.”

“We got it, Sunshine,” Andrew laughs when they walk out from under the freeway. She giggles and smiles because _yes_ , finally, a clue! “We got it!”

“All right,” Nolan smirks, “let’s find ourselves some Black-Eyed Kids!”  
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They travel to a few food stores and order dinner for both themselves and the homeless girls. Nolan somehow successfully rides a small kiddy carousel, and after, they sit down on some wooden benches and tables under a well-lit drape to eat.

“Sunshine,” Nolan says, rounding Andrew and nearing the far side of the bench, “next time we go investigate something, let’s go to Hawaii, right? Or Bora Bora. Something cool.”

“I’m calling my mom,” she says without really acknowledging him. Oh, this’ll be fun. Hah. 

With Sunshine out of frame, Andrew looks around. “This weather is pretty crazy,” he remarks at the downpour.

Nolan munches on his chicken. “Ah, I’ve seen crazier.”

Andrew taps his fingers to the wood for a moment, considering. “Hey, so are you and Sunshine—?” Nolan looks at him and Andrew motions. “You know..?”

Nolan stares at him and raises his brows. “What. What?”

“Are you dating Sunshine?” Andrew finally manages.

“Me—” Nolan splutters on his chicken for a second.

“Are you and Sunshine a thing?”

“No,” he says simply, looking up at Andrew. “No. Why?”

“Okay. Cool.” Andrew smiles and relaxes slightly. “I was wondering if you would let me ask her out.”

Nolan awkwardly smiles and nods slowly.

“I mean, she’s—” He twists around to look at her on the phone. “She’s perfect in every way.”

“Really—?” Nolan dubiously points to her.

“I mean, I think we’d be a great pair—”

“ _Sunshine_?”

“Yeah! And I’d like—”

Nolan laughs. “Okay..”

“I’d do all the boyfriend things and such.”

“Buy her flowers, take her to the movie?”

“Yeah,” Andrew nods excitedly. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” Nolan is pretty lax about all of this. When Sunshine looks back on the footage later, she absolutely cannot believe they’re having this conversation. “You think you have a shot with her?”

“Why not?”

“Very well then,” Nolan states theatrically, “I give you my consent.”

Andrew grins through his braces. “Thanks.”

Nolan can’t stop giggling for some reason. Is it really that funny? 

“Okay, so..” Sunshine sighs as she walks back over, dropping into the seat on Andrew’s right. “I called my mom, talked to her— she’s pretty pissed, but I told her we’re coming home shortly. So.”

Nolan makes a face and looks forward. “Are we actually coming home shortly—” He sarcastically turns to her, “or is that just something you said?”

“Just— just depending on your version of—” She moves her hands, trying to explain.

“Hey, Nolan, Nolan, it’s okay,” Andrew says softly, placing out a hand on the table.

“— _shortly_ ,” Sunshine finishes.

Nolan closes his eyes, clearly frustrated. He shakes his hands. “Why do you keep lying to your mom?”

“Just—” Andrew attempts.

“It makes her angrier and I have to hear about it and—”

“I’m not _lying_ , I’m just being vague, okay?” She rolls her eyes.

“Just leave it alone, okay?” Andrew says.

“Oh yeah?” Nolan retorts.

“So, how’s the food..?” she mutters, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. God, Nolan’s being such a baby.

“It’s good,” Andrew nods.

Nolan’s eyes widen, stupefied. He throws his arms out and looks at the camera, probably wondering why they’re acting like this is all normal. He clenches his jaw.

Andrew bites his lip. “So— Sunshine—”

She cuts him off. “I know you brought your camera, but—” Sunshine points to Nolan. “You did too, right?”

“Yes, I have my camera,” he bitterly says.

Sunshine looks at the crew. “I don’t want to be disappointed if you guys bail on us, I mean, no offense, I just— you know.”

Nolan stares at her. “Why are you getting on the film crew now? What—?”

“Nolan,” Andrew annoyingly says.

Sunshine rolls her eyes. God, what’s got him in a sour mood all of a sudden? He looks away and pokes his chicken.

“Yeah, and I— have mine— but—” Andrew stumbles over his words. “Are you—?”

“I gotta pee, I’ll be back guys, okay? I’ll be back.” Sunshine stands and walks away.

Andrew flicks his head to Nolan. “How do you do this?”

“Okay, I’m gonna give that about a 6.3.”

“I’m sorry..!”

Nolan squints. “You did well, you just couldn’t stick the landing, it’s fine.” 

“How do you— she’s so pretty!”

“Okay— I’ll tell you what.” Nolan stops him from talking with a hand. “Just— next time you ask her out, just try asking her out.” He giggles, like he’s the funniest guy in the world.

(Seriously. Don’t.)

“Shut up, dude,” Andrew laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn’t write as much as usual just because i’m tired but anyway ye enjoy.
> 
> aLSO i wanted to hint there that nolan started acting snappy bc of andrew trying to be with sunshine don’t @ me ok this happened


	52. Chapter 52

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang meets up with Greeny and pursue a Black-Eyed-Kid. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned, and Sunshine has to make a hard decision.

Night has completely fallen, leaving behind a dark blanket over Portland. After dinner, Sunshine drives to the park, scanning the area upon arrival. They’re here to meet their— homeless friend— and, yeah. This’ll be fun. Maybe. Hopefully they don’t get robbed.

Nolan and Andrew follow behind as she leads the way down the sidewalk. “Let’s try it,” the ginger quips as they enter the park, huge Christmas tree flashing blue and red lights back at them. 

“Does anyone see her?” Nolan asks, tucking his hands deeper into his black leather jacket. He’s considerably less moody, but still annoying to deal with.

“I think—” She squints, eyeing a figure next to the tree. “I think that’s her over there.” Sunshine makes a face.

“I think you’re right.” Nolan charges ahead and dramatically clears his throat. “Excuse me. Miss,” he calls. “Hi. You made it.”

“Hey,” she nods, shrugging the green jacket over her head. “Did you guys bring me anything to eat?”

Nolan hands her the brown bag and she checks inside, dimples pointing through her smile after. “Thanks,” she says warmly, zipping open her backpack to stuff the food inside.

“Yeah. Totally,” Nolan replies.

“You guys sure that you wanna go?”

“Yes,” all three say in unison. 

“Definitely,” Sunshine adds.

“There’s a place where I’ve seen a couple of ‘em hangin’ out— I’ve never talked to one of them. I don’t think you should talk to them, but...” She shrugs. “I’ll take ya there.”

Nolan wants to chat with one of these entities, apparently. Hah. As if.

“Yeah, please,” he calmly agrees, but Sunshine figures he’s pissing his pants because they’re _actually_ going to a hot spot. At least, if Greeny is right and not just lying to them. 

Too late now. Sunshine actually has no idea where they’re going, since they’ve veered away from the park and on to one of the side roads, but— y’know. They’re wandering, so maybe that’ll be interesting enough for her viewers if things don’t happen to check out.

They stride near an overpass and Greeny gasps softly, brushing against Sunshine’s jacket and tugging her close. “Woah,” she breathes nervously.

“What— you just _freaked_ out—” Sunshine tries to splutter in an annoyed voice, but is promptly cut off.

“There’s one right there,” Greeny says, completely serious.

Wait, what?

“ _What_?” Nolan snaps, glaring at Greeny and peering over her shoulder at the opposite end of the shielded overpass. There’s what appears to be an older kid standing there, completely dressed in black. Nolan ducks down below Greeny’s height. “Shhh!”

“Settle down.” Sunshine rolls her eyes at Nolan’s theatrics. This is big— if it _is_ a BEK.

“Oh my god,” Greeny laughs when she twists her head back to look, “those are _scary_.”

Sunshine slowly turns and looks at the kid, heart skipping in her chest. They’re standing completely still, staring at the wall with rounded black eyes. Holy shit. Holy _shit_.

“Yep,” Nolan says. “That’s a— that’s a—” He glances back over at it. “Okay, so, uh, game plan. What’s goin’ on..?”

“I think we should talk to her.” The idea is just as stupid as it sounds when it blubbers out of Sunshine’s mouth.

“We should _talk_ — okay.” Nolan shakes his head sarcastically. “All right, well— yeah. Go have fun, we’ll be back here, tell us how it goes, yeah?”

Greeny eyes them. “Wait, it’s for real, though?”

Nolan nods and tries to explain their little film crew thing going on as they inch closer to the BEK. It turns away, legs crooked, pulling itself forward limply. “She’s going somewhere,” he grunts. They don’t stop moving. “I guess we’re following her.”

Bells toll in the distance as the group nears the BEK, who continues walking in the other direction, past the store fronts.

“I don’t think we should get that close,” Greeny nervously mumbles.

“It’s okay, guys,” Andrew smiles, “I’ve got the Andy-cam, we’re covered.”

Sunshine presses her brows together and looks at the ginger incredulously. “Did you just call your own camera the _Andy_ -cam?”

“Andy stands for Andrew—”

“Shh!” Greeny shushes, standing closer to Nolan. Her voice drops a few levels. “I just heard of people not coming back,” she explains. “Like, rumors that they get _snatched_ or somethin’.”

“Okay, well, that’s just great—” he tries.

“Well, you have cameras,” Greeny continues optimistically.

Nolan makes a face, as if he doesn’t really believe what he’s saying— or he could be saying it sarcastically. Sometimes Sunshine can’t tell the difference. “Yeah, we should be fine. Of course, the cameras.”

The BEK crosses past a wall and Sunshine perks at the familiar tug in her gut. She moves her legs forward and rounds the corner, squinting at the awkward and distorted way it begins to walk. The BEK pauses near the tram stop and slowly inches its head to the side, blinking black eyes at the group.

“Oh,” Nolan breathes, anxiously pressing next to the wall. He frowns. “Okay, so. I have an idea.”

Sunshine turns to him, but doesn’t keep her eyes off of the BEK. “What?” she mutters.

He determinedly looks at them. “When she hits the Max, let’s jump her.”

Silence. All Sunshine can think is— _Really_? The _tram_?

“ _What_?” Greeny asks. Yeah, Sunshine too.

“Where’s she gonna take us? She’s on a Max. I mean, it could work—”

“Shh,” Sunshine snaps.

“Try and corner her?” he goes on, glaring at the entity that’s swaying under the cover of the trees. “It’s just a thought.”

Greeny considers. “That’s not a bad idea. You can just ask her questions.”

The bells on the tram ring, signaling the arrival of the Max trolley. It rolls forward, spluttering as it slows to a stop.

“Well, it’s now or never, I guess,” Greeny shrugs.

“It’s your call, Sunshine,” Nolan prompts.

She sighs and grudgingly steps forward, nearing the BEK. They watch as it slowly enters the tram and quickly do the same, boarding through the sliding doors. Andrew, Nolan, Sunshine, and Greeny squeeze together on a seat, all eyeing each other and the BEK across from them.

“It’s freaking me out,” Sunshine mutters. “I’m already freaked out about the public transportation thing,” she says, glaring at Nolan, “and now this?”

“I feel weird inside,” Nolan says, staring at the BEK. It’s standing, arm slung around the handle.

“Go talk to her,” Greeny urges.

“I don’t want to. Bad idea,” he mumbles. After another minute of staring, Nolan shakes out of his trance, “Okay, I don’t wanna look at her anymore. We shouldn’t have come. We should go back. Let’s go back home.” He shrugs, narrowing his eyes, beginning to freak the hell out. Sunshine stares at the camera, annoyed. “I don’t wanna be here, let’s go.”

“We came all this way,” Greeny reasons, “I think you should talk to her.”

Nolan widens his eyes sarcastically at her, nodding. “Okay,” he says, “go on.”

“I’m not even here to do that.”

“Okay, well.” He scrunches his nose and nervously looks out of the window. “We’ll keep our opinions to ourselves.” Nolan bites the inside of his cheek, shrugging his shoulders in. “We’ll— we’ll just wait it out, ‘kay?’

“It’ll be fun,” Sunshine says.

The BEK looks at them, twists around, and lumbers off of the tram.

“She’s getting off, she’s getting off!” Greeny sprints after the entity, everyone else quickly following behind. Two older teenagers standing off to the side look at Sunshine and exchange a glance.

“Hey, hey!” the taller one says, stopping Sunshine in her tracks. She grits her teeth and wheels around. Come on, they have to follow the BEK! “Sunshine!”

“Um,” she says, not knowing exactly what to do with this situation. She’s never been noticed in public before. “No, I think you have the— wrong girl—”

“No, Sunshine,” he insists, “from YouTube?”

“No, no, no,” Nolan quickly says, pointing at her, “this isn’t Sunshine, this is LaVern.” She raises her brows and grunts when he hesitantly pulls an arm around her, shrugging her close. “My, uh, girl. My girl LaVern.”

She stares forward. Really?

“No, this is Sunshine,” he goes on, not convinced. The tram doors close beside them.

“No, no no,” Nolan tries again, “I’m John LaVern, we gotta go— uh— to a party—”

“Wait, party?” the other teen giggles, following them past the corner. “What?”

“Guys, come on,” Nolan laughs, but it’s edged with desperation and annoyance. “Give us a break, one time, please.” They whip around and look up and down the next block, but BEK and Greeny are gone.

“Where’d they go?” Sunshine mutters. “She— she’s gone..”

“Damnit!” Nolan curses, furiously pacing back and forth through the street. 

Oh, god. Greeny’s gone. She’s _gone_ , probably abducted, all because they’d been stopped by some fans— No. If wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know, even if there were cameras and... eugh. She stressfully wipes a hand down her face. Shit.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Nolan loudly says, but is really only trying to soothe his own nerves. “Okay, we find the girl, we—”

“We should maybe go back to Tom Waters?” Sunshine says to the camera, frowning. “Show him what we have? I mean, I don’t know what to do.”

“This _sucks_ ,” Nolan growls.

The two fans seem to realize this isn’t the best time and cautiously walk away.

“Did anybody see where she went?”

Sunshine’s too nervous to humor Nolan and his usual antics. “I think we should go back to Tom Waters,” she repeats, throwing her arms out. What else is there to do?

“Like—” Nolan shakes his head disapprovingly. “All right.”

“Show him what we have! I mean, it’s worth it, I think.” She sighs and leads the way down the block. “Come on.”

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“Oh my god,” Nolan drawls when they’re back in the car, on the road to Tom Waters’s house. “I can’t believe we actually _saw_ one.”

“And we got the footage of it,” Andrew chimes in from the back seat.

“I mean—” Sunshine raises her hand and it drops. “I’m a little worried about the girl, but— she’ll turn up, won’t she? I mean...” Her phone begins to ring. Oh, fucking hell. It’s Kat.

“I don’t know,” Nolan mumbles.

“It’s my mom. It’s my mom!” Sunshine shoves the phone in his hands. “Talk to her.”

“ _What_?”

“Talk to her!”

“Wha—”

“Answer the phone!”

“I’m never forgiving you for this,” Nolan sighs, answering and lifting the phone to his ear, hand shaking. “Hello?”

Sunshine listens intently over the roar of the road under the tires.

“Hey, Mrs— what? No, I’m with her right now.” Nolan looks curiously at Sunshine. What’s her mom saying? “She’s driving.” A pause. “Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay, yes, I understand— listen, listen, listen—”

Oh, great. Here it comes.

“I understand where you’re coming from, okay? I’m on your side—” Traitor! “I just— okay, look, we’re really close, okay? I think we actually— oh! Oh, come _on_. That’s a little— that’s a little harsh.”

What’s happening over there? Ugh!

Nolan sighs. “All right. Okay. All right.” He ends the call and plops the phone in Sunshine’s lap.

“What’d she say?” Sunshine demands.

“Well, Sunshine—” Nolan straightens dramatically, probably ready to complain about having to lie about where they’re actually going. “Your mother’s not happy.”

“Well— _duh_ ,” she snaps.

“She says if— if we don’t come home right now, she is...” A sigh. “Taking you off of your YouTube channel and she’s gonna kill you, probably.”

“She’s not gonna _kill_ me, okay?”

Nolan looks at her seriously. “Well, I think she might actually take the YouTube down.”

Sunshine shakes her head. No, her mom wouldn’t do that. She doesn’t believe it.

“You know what that means? No more videos.”

“I know!” she stresses. Why does Kat have to make everything so fucking complicated when this whole thing is already crazy? “I know what it means, okay?”

“Now, if you wanna do this, I’m with you,” he says. “Okay? But— there are actual consequences that follow from this. It’s your call.”

Andrew pinches his lips together. “Your mom is pretty upset though.”

Sunshine continues driving, thinking. They don’t have time for this, and if this is the price... well. Fuck it. “We’ll go home when I think that we’ve got it, okay? But I— but I think the— okay, just. We’re doing it.”

“Okay.” Nolan shrugs and leans back. 

This is gonna be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok sorry!!! for the two or three day wait i’ve been feeling kinda mentally crappy but had some motivation to continue so ye. vv fun chapter i laughed when nolan pretended sunshine was someone else. okay yeah thanks for reading!


	53. Chapter 53

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew makes a shocking discovery, the BEKs make an appearance, and Andrew is kidnapped.

They’re back at Tom Waters’s house, _again_. Sunshine slowly steps up on the patio and clangs the door knocker against the wood, leaning back and nearly running into Nolan, who’s being clingier than usual. Ugh.

Oh. _Oh_. The door sways open from the pressure of Sunshine’s palm, a draft pulling the wind inside.

“Oh. Well that’s dandy,” Nolan says.

Sunshine frowns, heart thumping wildly in her chest. “The door is open,” she mutters, more to herself than anyone, leading the way inside of Tom’s house. “Mr. Waters?”

“Are you sure we wanna be in here?” Andrew asks hesitantly.

“Mr. Waters!” Sunshine whispers-yells, ignoring Andrew.

“Hey Tom?” Nolan calls louder, peering over their heads into the kitchen. As they walk past the living room Sunshine realizes most of the lights are off, save for one in the open study. The static of the box television gives off an eerie, unwelcoming vibe. “The door was open.”

“Shhh, you don’t have to yell,” Sunshine grumbles, “What if he’s, like, sleeping or something?” She looks into a side bedroom. “Go look in there.”

Nolan shuffles over and pokes his head inside the dark room. “Mr. Waters?” he whispers. No answer.

“Sir?” Andrew tries. “Sir, are you there?”

Sunshine doesn’t have a good feeling. The closer they inch toward the kitchen, the tighter her stomach seems to clench. She thrums her fingers along her jeans, twitching slightly from the pain.

“Okay, maybe he’s not _here_ , right?” Nolan pads up behind Sunshine and Andrew, hesitantly glancing around. “He left his door open, we don’t need to be here when he gets back— let’s just come back later.”

Sunshine doesn’t listen. She _can’t_ listen. Something buzzes in her ears and her mind feels like it’s floating. “No,” she replies, but the word feels foreign on her tongue. “I think he’s here.” She doesn’t really know what she’s saying, or what is happening behind her, but can recognize that gut feeling.

“Good,” Nolan sarcastically says, “you think he’s here. Great.”

Sunshine makes her way into the back hallway next to the kitchen, blinking at the bathroom light streaming in front of her. “Mr. Waters?” She’s not sure why she’s calling out— he hasn’t answered any of them yet.

Nolan frowns and checks in another bedroom. Sunshine peers into the bathroom, and Andrew nervously looks down the dark hallway. “Sunshine,” Nolan sighs, “at this point we’re basically just breaking and entering. That’s all we’re doing.”

She looks at him, raising a brow. “We’re not _breaking in_ —”

A sharp bang jolts Sunshine into place. Her eyes widen and she blankly stares at the slammed front door, blocking their way out of the house. Oh, wonderful.

“Every _time_ with the—” Nolan runs a hand through his ashen-brown hair. “I’m just saying doors, in general, I hate them now.”

“What was it?” she asks, following him back near the kitchen.

Nolan widens his arms to his sides. “It was nothing,” he says with an edge to his voice. “Of course, it was nothing. It’s always nothing. It’s just a—” He scrunches his nose and makes a vague motion. 

“So he’s not there,” Andrew concludes.

“I don’t think so. No, I don’t see any Tom.”

Sunshine has to refrain from rolling her eyes. God, he’s in a horrible mood. 

“Sunshine, let’s go,” he stresses, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

“No. I know he’s here.” She slowly turns and walks into the kitchen, eyes widening when she sees a figure standing there. Oh! A kid! Wait, why is there a child in here? Does Tom have children? “Hey, kid, do you know—” The kid turns into another brightly-lit closet.

Okay, random kid.

“Uh,” Nolan calls suspiciously, “who ya talking to there?”

“Wait—”

“Sunshine, you saw a _kid_?” Nolan rushes to her side in an instant, puffing out a breath.

“I wanna talk to you,” she says, blindly following.

“Where are you going?!”

“Sunshine!” Andrew yelps, following like a lost puppy.

“What happened?” Nolan demands when she stops at a dark green curtain leading to the pitch-black basement.

“There was a boy here,” she murmurs. Sunshine feels dizzy and her stomach is flopping like a fish out of water, and _god_ , she can’t think straight—

“There was a _child_ in the house?” He throws his arms up. “Did he have black eyes?”

“No, I didn’t see his face.”

Nolan chews on his lip and closes his eyes in frustration, holding the curtain open for her to pass under. “Sunshine, Sunshine— we have to go, okay? There’s nothing for us here. Please?”

“Mr. Waters,” she calls down, ignoring Nolan.

“Just for me, not for yourself?”

Andrew’s frown deepens as Sunshine begins to descend the stairs. “He doesn’t seem like a guy with a kid.”

Nolan groans. “Thank you, Andrew.” He follows Sunshine down into the darkness, stumbling behind her. He hits the bottom floor and tries to reach out for her, but she’s already a few paces forward. “Sunshine, are you sure we should be down here?”

Sunshine stops before she can speak and screams, voice raking against her throat. She stumbles back and Nolan catches her, staring with wide-eyes at the sight. “Oh, shit!”

Tom Waters is hanging from the ceiling, rope wrapped tightly against his throat. His arms are limply splayed at his sides, eyes rolled into the back of his head, color drained from his face. Sunshine screams and sobs into Nolan’s jacket, who quickly turns her head away into his chest. They rush back up the stairs, camera crew first for some reason, and break back out the front door.

Sunshine flops to the ground and gasps in air, feeling the grass crinkle beneath her palms. She’s shaking so badly she can’t even walk, and ends up dropping completely flat on her stomach. 

Time goes by quickly and, after what seems like moments, she doesn’t really know where she is or what’s going on. She knows someone plops down beside her and comfortingly runs fingers through her hair and a hand over her back, but Sunshine doesn’t know who... she doesn’t even think to wonder.

Blue lights flash in her vision and Sunshine groans. Soft hands help her up and she sniffles, sobbing once more. “Shhh,” Nolan whispers, pulling her close to him without even thinking. “Hey, it’s okay. Yeah? It’s fine. Trust me.”

Sunshine trusts him, she thinks. She’s confused about the lights and the sirens but comes to realize that the police are here— Andrew must have called. 

“Ma’am, will you come with me?” a police officer asks. She numbly follows him to the ambulance and sits down, blinking slowly when a blanket is wrapped around her shoulders. But— but Sunshine doesn’t want to be here alone, she wants _Nolan_ , and she wants her mother and Uncle Tommy and— Her throat rumbles with a deep cry.

“Sunshine,” a familiar voice speaks. She looks up and sees Nolan, who’s trying to smile but failing miserably. She realizes he’s been crying. “Maybe you should call your mom.”

Her mom. Yeah. Kat will want to know about this and know where they are. But... even then..

The whole thing seems to fly by. Hours have passed, Sunshine’s pretty sure, and the police have questioned them and are allowing them to leave. Unfortunately she’s the only one that can drive, so promptly leaves the house with a heavy heart and drooping eyes.

“Okay, we’re lost,” Nolan eventually mumbles from the passenger seat. Yeah. They are. Sunshine doesn’t even know where she’s going.

“I have no idea where we are,” she says.

“Yeah. That’s obvious.”

“Thanks,” Sunshine snaps. She doesn’t want to deal with Nolan’s moodiness right now, not when _that_ just happened. She does understand where’s he’s coming from, though.

“Okay, you know what?” Nolan shakes his head. “Stop going in circles, okay? We’re not gonna find our way out of here— just pick a direction and let’s just go.”

“Okay!” she growls, voice raising in pitch.

“Okay, okay.”

“I get it!”

“All right?”

“Jeez. Can you just—” She sighs, frustrated and shocked and— agh! “Just calm down for a second?”

“ _Don’t_ get snippy with me!” he snaps back, glaring daggers at her. 

“Hey,” Andrew sighs.

“Andrew, stop talking,” she says, really only able to focus on one annoyance at a time. Nolan is taking that pedestal.

Who feels the need to continue arguing. “I’m not the reason that we’re out here, you understand? I’m glad you’re having fun! Okay?”

Sunshine groans.

“I’m scared, all right?” Nolan’s voice shakes but Sunshine refuses to look at him. She’s scared too! “I wanna go home—”

“I _get_ it.”

“I’m tired of all this— first, we find nothing, and then we find stuff we don’t want to find—”

“Sunshine—” Andrew panics.

“I know!” she snarls.

“Sunshine!”

“ _What_?!”

“Uh,” the camera man says, voice deep and grating. “Up ahead.”

Everyone looks forward. Sunshine loses her breath when she sees the Black-Eyed Kid from the tram earlier, staring at them with pitch black eyes. Another one rounds to the sidewalk on the left and the girl slowly comes to the side of the car, tapping on the window with a finger.

“Don’t do it,” Nolan says. “Sunshine, _don’t_ open the window, let’s just go!”

“I feel like I have to,” she growls.

“Sunshine, do not—” Andrew shakes his head. 

Sunshine ignores everyone else in the car and rolls down the window, staring at the entity. It looks at her, unblinking. “Can you take us to our Mother? He’s really worried.”

“Sunshine!” Nolan whisper-yells. “Let’s go.”

“No! No, we can’t, no.” Sunshine turns back to the BEK.

“We don’t want you to leave us, Sunshine,” it continues.

“What?” Her voice trembles and the hair on the back of her neck stands up at the bone-chilling smile the BEK gives. Before anything else can happen, the child smirks and whirls away, running alongside the other entity.

“Sunshine, we have to go,” Nolan begs.

“No, we don’t.” She wheels the car around, narrowing her eyes.

“ _What_? No, no no no— no, no NO! _No_! We’re not—” She floors the gas, engine rumbling as they begin to follow. “Come on!” Nolan yells.

“I do not wanna follow!” Andrew cries.

“I wanna go home!” Nolan says, lifting himself up, as if he can fly away from the seat. Haha. Good luck. She’s doing this.

Andrew tries to reason with her. “Sunshine, I know you want this, but I don’t think we should go.”

“Yes. We need to.”

Nolan shakes his head. “Sunshine, this is supremely stupid, all right?”

“It’s not _stupid_ —”

“It _is_!”

“No it’s not!”

“This is how people _die_ in films! Do you understand?” Nolan says in a dark, terrified voice.

“Sunshine, this is dangerous!” Andrew barks.

“It’s the whole point of the film,” she snaps back. She’s the driver. They’re doing this. “There they are.” She peels the car next to the curb and looks at the two children peering back.

“Sunshine, come on,” Nolan says thickly. “We can’t do this, Sunshine. Okay? Not now, not like this. Okay? Nobody knows where we are—”

She unbuckles her seatbelt and turns the engine off. “Get out of the car.”

“Sunshine— _fine_! Fine! I will!” He throws himself from the passenger seat. “I’m gonna die today.”

The BEKs giggle and run to a dark house. Sunshine swiftly follows, adrenaline spurring her forward. She can see the shapes of the entities in the distance, and then— they’re gone.

“ _Sunshine_!” Andrew screams from the distance. Sunshine looks around, eyes wide. He screams as loud as he can, but the echoes of his voice slowly die away, until they can’t hear him at all.

“Andrew?” she cries.

“Andrew!” Nolan yells. “Andrew!”

“It’s coming from that way,” Sunshine says, pointing toward the abandoned house. The camera man turns to look at his boom guy, who shakes his head. They both back away, nearly tripping over their own shoes.

Oh, shit. This is what the camera crew bailing on them looks like. “What are you doing?” she demands. “I paid for that! You can’t just— leave!”

Leave they do. In fact, they _sprint_. Fuck!

At least Nolan has a camera. She picks it up in her hands and sighs stressfully, closing her eyes and tapping her fingers to her forehead. This isn’t the best situation to be in.

“Are we good?” Nolan asks, biting the inside of his cheek.

“Can you go?” she sighs.

Nolan stares at her but eventually complies, turning and walking toward the house. “Damnit,” he mutters bitterly. “Yeah. You know where _Andrew_ is..”

“In the house,” Sunshine mumbles. “Stupid Andrew.”

“So now we have to go _into_ the house.” Nolan shrugs his way through the broken fence, the edges rattling around his precious leather jacket. Sunshine follows, ducking and missing the snap of the chain-link across what should’ve been her face, but is now empty air.

“We grab him,” Nolan explains as they flank the abandoned home, traveling to the front, leaves crunching loudly under their feet, “fight off whoever’s got him, get him back out of the house, get him home, _safe_ — agh.” He trips over a root and Sunshine can’t help but laugh. “Or—”

“Sorry,” she giggles.

“Or, you know what we could do?” He faces her in the darkness of the night. 

“Ouch!” Sunshine complains.

“We don’t have to go into the house, you know why?”

She looks up at him, raising a brow. “Why?”

“We can call— we’ll call the cops, and then we’ll have his release negotiated through a— a megaphone—”

“We have no service.”

Nolan stops, breath hitching. “What?”

“We have no service,” she repeats, “I just checked my phone. This is like a horror film.” Well, it kind of _is_ but this is scarier than anything she’d ever imagined. Maybe Kat was right.

“All right. Fine, fine. We’ll go into the house. Just be very— very quiet.” His voice drops into a whisper as he crouches. “And stealthy!”

“I’m being very quiet!” she whisper-yells back, ducking down as well for reasons she doesn’t really understand.

“No one will know we’re in there,” Nolan says. “I mean, how bad could it be? Just some— kidnappers, with weapons.”

“Yeah, just some kidnappers with weapons...” Sunshine leans forward and peers through the dusty window.

“Can you see anything in there?”

“No, not really.”

“Me neither.” He sighs and squints his brown eyes. “You know— we could just leave him. We found him on Craigslist. Right?”

“ _Nolan_!” she snaps. Seriously? Why does he even think that’s a possibility? Sunshine shoves his shoulder and he stumbles back. “We can’t just _leave_ him.”

“I was _kidding_.”

“No you weren’t,” she mutters, following him up to the porch.

“We gotta find a way in. Unlock the door, or a window, or—” Okay, but this isn’t James Bond. “A rabbit— hole. Or something.”

“Yes, a rabbit hole.” Sunshine rolls her eyes.

God. They just need to get in, save Andrew, get out, and return home.

Sunshine’s pretty sure it won’t be that simple, though.

Fuck. Looks like they’re doing this the hard way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO i totally forgot tom waters dies omg i was so shocked i??? anyway this chapter was hella fun to write i can’t wait to continue yeah enjoy and stay tuned!


End file.
